I kind of liked the first one and was intrigued enough to read the follow up but I'm not sure that goodwill is going to last to the next book. I was close to giving this 1 star but felt compelled to stretch to 2 at the last stretch.

Same issues as the first book really - lots of characters, not much plot. Instead, there's a lot of (admittedly, often quite interesting) speculation about the mechanics of such a situation, from the geographical to the political and spiritual. They've clearly had a great time thinking about the potentials and the issues. They just haven't found time to come up with a compelling plot to fit it all in.

The introduction of the Beagles didn't really make any difference to anything, just serving as a distraction/filler; the anti-American feeling is stronger; the slightly out of place humour of the first seems to have been dropped and I struggled to place TP anywhere in the writing. A disappointment with some glimmers of interest.

If this is a trilogy, with the definite and absolute promise of there not being an ongoing series, then for completeness, I might read the final book. If not, if there's even a hint they might keep it going, then I might bale out here. That should sum it up.