I must have got past my reservations about the anthromorphised animals because I really got into this. Set a year or so after the events of the first book this fair picks up the pace and gets truly stuck in to the chaos that an eight way first contact scenario would engender. This one also starts in on the subplot of gender politics and that is a nice bass note running under the space hijinks. Holiday reading so I blitz through them (hence short reviews) but a definite recommend.