This book definitely falls into the ‘second book in a trilogy, need to get everything set up’ category. However, the more I thought about the ending of Black Sun, the more it made sense for there to be more politicking and planning as everyone picked up the pieces. The slower paced politically driven books are not my speed, so I didn’t enjoy this one as much as Black Sun - but the set up now has me intrigued for book 3. It helped that I enjoyed everyone’s POV, which is not the case for every multiple POV book I pick up.