The new villain Serene Galahad behaviour does reflected her name; this cross between Hilter, Stalin and Vlad the Impaler, who slaughters billions of people and than blames someone else for it. She see humans (if they are not useful to her) as a plague on the planet and aims to cure that particular problem.
The story really centres on Serene taking over the world, and her attempts to quash rebellion on a space station by Saul and on Mars by his sister Var. Saul is attacked, in effect dies but in some ways comes back stronger than before. Earth forces attack the space station and threaten Mars.
I was not disappointed in this sequel. A good book with themes such as committees holding up technological progress so they can maintain power; does technology dehumanise; environmental impact on humanity and the warped ideas that may occur if fixing these is taken to far.
