I am really enjoying this series. I have said this before but I wanna underline the point: It really feels like reading a TV show (I guess cinematic would be the right word!) and well I love TV shows!

This book introduces us to a few new POV characters and that is a very positive change as the only 2 POVs from the first book felt a bit lacking. 

Out of the 3 new POVs Avasarala is clearly the best one. That (tiny) woman just has a very strong presence and that also truly shines throughout the pages. Her pretty vulgar speech might not vibe with everyone but I just think it gives her great character and also all of her political maneuvering was a joy to read.

As I am writing this I notice that this series does love to play with opposites. We had Miller and Holden in book 1 and now we have as a secondary new POV character the 2 meter tall “Nubian Goddess” / Badass Marine Bobbie who in many ways absolutely contradicts Avasarala. I already really liked that character in the show and that totally translated towards the novel. Just learning more of Martian culture through her was very enjoyable and I think she has some great dynamics with the rest of the characters.

The third new POV character, Prax, felt like more of a miss to me. His early chapters particularly were pretty boring which definitely got better though further into the book but I think the general somewhat blandness of the character just falls flat with all the very colorful personalities surrounding him. 

I am also happy to report that I’d loved being reminded why Amos was my favorite character from the show. He had a lot more to do within this book, still not as a POV character (though that hopefully will change?) but just as a general “no bullshit problem solver” and just his dry humor being ridiculously funny. 

On the plot front there is nothing really new to talk about, having seen the TV show. I obviously don’t have perfect memory (hell, I even forgot that Prax actually existed) but as I went through the book it served as a great reminder and I kind of knew where it was going all the time. 

The book ends on a pretty cool cliffhanger but then again that wasn’t really surprising to me. I am gonna jump into the next book immediately though.