I enjoyed the previous book enough to push for us to read the second at a book club before I’d even bought it. Fortunately I wasn’t disappointed! There’s less world building this time round, as many of the characters have already been introduced, as have most of the key concepts and the different cultures. Instead we get what is fundamentally a first contact story, along with some romance (and an unconvincing, as is often the case in sci-fi, sex scene) and political manoeuvring. If you enjoyed the first book, I think you’ll find the second at least as good - possibly better if you disliked the poetry as there is less this time round.

It’s a shame there isn’t a third book as I really enjoyed the universe and characters, but it did feel like a natural place to end and perhaps the author felt she had taken things as far as they could go.