Children of Ruin

4.5, I loved the new cast of characters introduced in book number 2. Senkovi in particular was hilarious and an excellent portrayal of the genius scientist who never stopped to ask if he should but only if he could and the effects are incredible. Once again the portrayal of the manner in which a different species might think/perceive the world if they developed sentience was fascinating. It was even more well done in this case since the octopi manner of thinking is much more alien than the portids. Fascinating to experience. Also the alien life/parasite on nod was truly horrifying at first which was not a feeling i was expecting going into this book. Only reason its not 5 stars is i think the ending wrap up of everything with the alien parasite was a little too clean cut and simple. I find it hard to believe that this alien parasite can simply be talked out of taking over the universe but it does make some sense within the context of their storyline. Still too simple and clean for me but im not mad enough about it to ding it more than half a star.