I thoroughly enjoyed Fortune’s Pawn, book 1 in this pulpy sci-fi series… but this second book in the series doesn’t hold up quite as well. There are segments in it that are every bit as fun and engaging as that first book but the majority of it focuses on the main plot of the series (something that was a mystery in the first book) and the author fails to keep that storyline engaging. Her storytelling was more interesting when it was just a sci-fi workplace story (where the workplace was a trading ship and the worker a heavily-armored mercenary).

Too much of this book feels like compulsory plot treading than natural story telling… events occur that either mechanically propel the plot or artificially create barriers of padding to keep the page count up. The main character makes decisions that you, as a reader, know are mistakes and she seems to make them to move the plot from point A to point B. It just didn’t feel structurally sound… perhaps this is the middle segment syndrome and book 3 will pull it together.

This isn’t a bad read overall, it’s just a let down from the solid, thrilling first book in the series. Not nearly the page-turned that book was and, as such, took me an abnormally long amount of time to complete.