At first this book was hard for me to get into and I was struggling to figure out why. I think that the time jump at the beginning played a role. I was a little put off by info dumps rather than experiencing taking and figuring out the platforms with Spensa. Also, the random kiss with Jorgen was out of left field, but again, it’s info dumped that he expressed interesting during that time gap and Spensa wasn’t ready.

Secondly, very shortly into the book, Spensa leaves her planet. The bulk of the book takes place at a totally different place and we have little interaction with the characters we loved from the first book. Even MBOT is less present, as Spensa is unable to communicate with him during her training.

However, all that being said, once I pushed through, I started enjoying this book. All the different species are so distinct and interesting. I loved how in-depth Sanderson went with some of them, particularly diones. Spensa’s new flight was fun and hilarious. I also really enjoyed the political elements of this book.

My only other complaint was how things were resolved with the delver. It just seemed simplistic and really strange. It was just further driving home the point of “everyone should be respected and given a chance no matter how different they are from you.” I could’ve used a little more subtlety on that point. It started feeling like we were getting banged over the head with it at the end.

Overall, I did really enjoy reading this book. I think I enjoyed book one more, but the amazing world (universe?) building was so fascinating in this book that I couldn’t give it less than 4 stars.