I'm enjoying this series ... while I splurged and purchased the audio, I still like (need) to have the text handy, so I was waiting on the kindle copy from the library. Still got to read book 2 shortly after finishing book 1. I should get to the next two next month ... I don't think I'll wait long to get to them. 

I am still having that "familiar feel" ... with M-Bot, I'm reminded of Project Hail Mary and Columbus Day, with the cute little AI sidekick (PHM isn't AI ... but still similar in tone).  Some "Star Wars" thoughts too, I was picturing the cantina with all the different types of aliens at one point. There is a whole new group of characters here ... and many are very unique. 

Almost identical set-up, with five "parts" with multiple chapters, and a few (non chapter) "interludes" from someone else's POV, Jorden or Morrimur, in 3rd person, whereas the rest of the story is 1st person/past tense from Spensa's POV ... although she is "Alanik" for a majority of the book. 

Very YA friendly ... their "swear word" of choice "scud" comes up a lot (100+) but it's actually refreshing and feels truer to a "different world" than to have standard Earth proFanity ;)