Beyond the Hallowed Sky

4 stars because I had a few issues with this one, I am afraid. That's a bit below the average on here, I see.
Firstly, I should say that is still a thoroughly entertaining read with MacLeod's trademark socio-political speculation to the fore. It develops on themes he has explored before, updating them with new ideas.
However, I felt this had pacing and structural issues. The multiple point of view characters are not done well, I fear. For example, you start off with one character, get some development on them and exploration of (one of) the world(s) they are in and once you start to relate to this character it's off to another one and this one is never used again as a pov. It's jarring. There are also one set of pov's too many (I felt) but that might relate to my next point.
For me the book did not work well as a standalone. I get that it is part of a trilogy but I do like the parts of series to stand on their own a bit and this one just ends in a very odd place.
All that being said, I am still giving it 4 stars which means I enjoyed it and recommend it therefore don't take this as a negative review.