While Alex and Caleb search the pocket universes, the human/artificial hybrids search to escape military oversight, and others want to destroy them.

I wish I could say I was as enthusiastic about this book as I was in the first series, but it’s getting off to a slow start. I’m certain the exploration of new worlds and types of life is going somewhere, and after two unique lifeforms, the third turned out to be typical Star Trek humans: slightly different in appearance, but nearly identical in culture. I thought the author would do a better job of making them different. As this is more of a part 1 than the first book in a trilogy, it’s hard to say what relevance they will have. In the human universe, pieces are being moved around, from the human-artificial hybrids to a potential war on those same hybrids. It was nice to see the characters again, but there are a lot of them, and some only have bit parts, which sometimes makes it difficult to remember. There was a good action scene, and some political maneuvering, but it’s mostly setup. Looking forward to part 2, and the continuation of the story.

The end of the last book had humanity drive the Metigens back into their universe, and while they promised to close the gate, the one that was partial to humanity, Mesme, left it open, so that Alex and Caleb could come through, because he believed that humans were the key –but to what, we don’t yet know, even after this book.

Alex and Caleb spend the entire book in a side story, investigating the different pocket universes, trying to figure out what the Metigens were doing. In the Ekos star system, they encounter a neat plant-based world that is a very Gaia-like consciousness, along with a violent one of similar awareness that tries to kill them, and a third that has reached colonization stage and fires projectiles at them. Caleb, who bonded with the gentle one, felt obligated to show it how to defend itself because the other would eventually be looking for conquest. He’s heartbroken at destroying its innocence.

The second world they visit is made entirely of metals, and also appears to be a hive mind, using robots as interfaces with the humans and the twelve parts of the world. It’s an interesting twist, as the Ruda wonder how the artificial aboard the Siyane created organic lifeforms like humanity.

The third world is much more mundane, and we spent the most time here. Aside from being massive and strong and having four eyes, the Khokteh are just like humans. They have families and marriages, aircars and spaceships, buildings and weapons, religion and maternal instinct. There was little here that held my interest, as I was wishing for something unique like the first two. Once Alex and Caleb are shown to be intelligent and not spies, then quickly learning the language, they are treated as honored guests and given the unlikely run of the city. After an attack by one of their colonies, the Khokteh pray to their spirits, and a Metigen appears to give them more advanced weapons to wipe out their enemies. Although Alex and Caleb try to reason with Naataan after his spouse is killed, he deploys the antimatter weapon anyway, decimating one of the colony-enemies.

Although I was waiting for something interesting to happen, I was impressed with the first two worlds, which showed awe and wonder in a way that other books showing off their worlds did not –the boring Ringworld comes to mind. These worlds had interesting characteristics, and although the last one was a bit long and grew tiring, the introduction of the Metigen god spiced things up. And of course Alex and Caleb get drunk and have unseen but apparently amazing sex. I really thought something bad was going to happen in that scene, but no, it was just two drunk people.

Back in the human universe, the galaxy has gone back to normal, except for those who were changed to end the Metigen war. Myriam (Alex’s mom) is being pushed back at every turn, because the galaxy is not in crisis anymore, and political leaders need to put the military back into place. Richard, her advisor, is caught in the crossfire, as he’s married to a Senecan spy. On Miriam’s request, he defects to Seneca, and plots to disrupt the very criminal organization he coopted to help end the war. Kennedy is also being railroaded, as the government wants to limit the galaxy’s access to the indestructible material she’s producing. She draws the line and lets Seneca know that the Terran government is giving them a small fraction of what they said they would.

All of these are just pieces being moved around the board, presumably in preparation for whatever happens next.

The real meat of the story in the Milky Way galaxy deals with the human/artificial hybrids. Project Noesis produced Devon/Annie, Mia/Meno and Morgan/Stanley, in addition to Alex/Valkyrie. While Alex is out exploring the Metigen portals, the Prevos chaffe under heavy restrictions. Morgan, the only one from Seneca, plots to remove her connection to Stanley, though in the end she finds another way to be free.

Most of the time is spent with Mia, who is being nursed back to health, and reconnected with Meno gradually with help from the others. She has to learn everything again, and eventually joins their attempt to permanently escape control of the government and military.

Devon is the main instigator at engineering their escape. After he’s attacked and severed from Annie by a government oversight team, he takes matters into his own hands, and gets Annie into smaller and smaller physical containers. In a similar way to how Valkyrie is now integrated into Alex’s ship, Annie transforms, but can’t reconnect with Devon until he undergoes a complicated procedure at the hands of Abigail, the AI genius who created the Prevos in the first place.

Abigail is kidnapped, though, and brought to the home base of Olivia Montegreu, the criminal mastermind who helped humanity win the war in the last book. She also has a hidden artificial, and she threatens Abigail into connecting them so she becomes the latest Prevo. After Richard gets wind of this, he plants information so that an anti-artificial organization attacks Olivia’s base, providing a distraction for Malcolm (Alex’s old boyfriend) can extract Abigail and destroy Olivia’s building in an intense action sequence. He’s too late, though, as the new Prevo detects the bombs and disengages them, creating a forcefield around the building.

The pieces are moving, and this is more of a part one than book one. There is no real conclusion, as I suspect that, like the first trilogy, it’s meant to be read as a whole. Cliff-hangers abound, and I look forward to continuing the journey.