Pretty good. Picks up where Exodus left off, with the diminished and battered stragglers forcing their way through to the nearest human controlled fortress.

The vampire Aya gets most of the plot which is probably an improvement over the head-hopping from the previous episode - although we do jump to quite a few other characters it's always for only short interludes. Feeling the pull of her blood bond she leaves the vampire clan in which she'd found sanctuary and returns just in time to the humans she's come to think of as family, and they're equally as welcoming. However not all humans are as accepting and their reception at the Fortress is less welcoming, and a crushing disappointment after the months it's taken them to get there. The last of the Ranger led soldiers there see vampires and morphs alike as enemies by species, and are not inclined to accept individual differences. However even the fortress doesn't hold homogeneous views, and some of the researchers there are slowly learning some disquieting truths.

I'm really not a fan of jumping to the 'bad guy' characters for a few paragraphs to learn their plans without developing them as characters. Especially not for the morphs who don't seem to have characters or plans apart from the unexplained (still two books in) exceptions. Likewise the researchers in the Fortress although I'm sure going to be of importance in the third book, aren't given enough character development time for us to care about their actions. The internal politics of the fortress are important, but again not clearly defined, especially those who comprise of the Council, something we're only barely introduced to, but has a pivotal importance. The heavily foreshadowed and long-delayed union of Aya and Marcus is overly graphic for my taste, but I suppose some form of emphasis is required to establish how unusual their bond really is.

Mid trilogy (I hope! there's still a lto ot be explained!) novels can be difficult, but the pacing and revelations of this are well done and maintain the interest throughout. I finally understood most of the world-building that wasn't so clear in the first book, and expect the final novel to close out the different strands left open in this one, although it does end in a reasonable place. ( )