Great continuation of the Rosewater trilogy. Very much looking forward to the final instalment, out in October I think. ( )

Much easier to follow than the first book, without jumping back and forth in the timeline. I'm looking forward to the third. ( )

Book 1 of this series had such a range of interesting world building that I was just expecting a more in depth exploration of idea brought up there in book 2. I was pleasantly surprised -- a lot more of so much of what is going on in Rosewater, including the history, the politics, and a whole raft of information about the alien.

Still absolutely enamoured with this series. ( )

While the wonderful first book in the Wormwood Trilogy had a slightly more interesting and convoluted storytelling structure befitting a mystery novel with explosively weird fantasy and SF elements, the second book tones that down and gives a much more straightforward tale.

This isn't a bad thing, considering what is being accomplished. Some mystery is here, of course, and the worldbuilding is phenomenal. This little Nigerian town was turned into a hub of spore aliens slowing taking over not just humanity but all life, but most of us frail humans LIKE THE GIFT of being cured of diseases, so there's a steady stream of immigrants. And curiosity seekers. And people who just like to invite tentacular horrors into their bodies for private use, like the telepathy, godlike transformative abilities, or whatnot. :)

This book leads us to human rebellion not against the aliens, but against the greater Nigerian government. Independence? Well, it's not always a popular move. But this is also very strange modern politics.

I really, really enjoyed the big action when it came underway. Very imaginative, wild, and fun. In some ways, this was a superior book to the first. :) ( )

I had a mixed reaction to the first book in this series, a combination of being irritated with the anti-hero figure of Kaaro (who while believable became tedious after awhile), the overuse of flashback structuring (which killed immediacy for me), and a certain suspicion that all I had just read was simply "Invasion of the Body Snatchers" moved to a future Nigeria (though this has a certain value in and of itself as a commentary).

Still, I respected Thompson's achievement enough to give the second book in the trilogy a try and I'm glad I did. I can see why there are folks who find this work less compelling because of a more conventional structure but when you're playing with the stuff of thrillers, and all the choices are bad, I expect to be swept along on the tide of events. Also, it may simply come down to that we spend less time with Kaaro and more time with Aminat (a secondary character from the first book); not to mention a woman named Alyssa Sutcliffe who wakes up one morning and finds that she is not herself anymore. It's Alyssa's story that really pulls this work together for me. ( )