Remanence

by Jennifer Foehner Wells

I enjoyed this more than the first book, Fluency. That book seemed mostly like an alien monster movie: Earth astronauts see a spacecraft floating in the Belt, fly out to investigate, and get attacked by giant slugs.

This book gives all of that context. We see the backdrop of the galactic power struggle that it is part of, visit different alien worlds and meet different kinds of aliens. It has a great twist.

The only parts that were less fun were parts that dragged out too long–the long visit on the alien moon, the long trip back up into orbit. All in all better, though. I look forward to the next book in the series.