3.5 stars. A little harder to follow than the first in the series, I didn't enjoy this quite as much.

It has been said that the series needs to be viewed as a single book broken into installments rather than a true trilogy, so the construction of the story in that sense makes things work a little better. However, this "packaging" of the narrative did make things a little less cohesive and there was a lot of information dump and setup for the next step in the story rather than a solid encompassed tale.

There was still a lot of action in the story, specifically in the last third. There are a lot of moving parts and the world building is really well thought out. Though listed as a middle grade novel in some spaces, the complexity of the tale definitely verges into early YA territory. There is a lot of scientific conceptual theory and religious background to comprehend that will likely be beyond the majority of the middle grade set. Still, it is a good adventure tale.

I will be continuing on with the finale in the series just so I can get a better feel for how this part of the story fits in. I did enjoy the first book, so I feel like if I have the big picture that will make this book even more enjoyable in the end.