I read this, but I almost didn't finish it. At the start it is a strange mishmash of characters with no background, a strange world with a lot of missing backstory, and even stranger super aliens. As it turns out this is a sequel, and if you haven't read the previous book you'll be lost for a while. Its not a terrible book, and it did improve as it went on, but it really felt all along that I was missing too much to enjoy it. Way too much backstabbing, dirty politics, and out and out crime. In that way it reminds me of the Lensman books - but there's no good guys to save the day and round up the bad guys, just more bad guys to wipe out the little bad guys. Not recommended. ( )