I *loved* the first book, so I came into this one with high hopes. There were definitely some great parts, like the parasites and the part at the end with the creation of the new Anna Fang, but the whole Anchorage/Love Triangle thing had me kinda dragging through, which sucks because the writing is still very engaging, but it just felt sloggy. Anyway, still a great book and if you liked the first one you'll probably like this. Just be prepared to mentally smack Tom (and to some level, Hester) around a bit :p