I feel this was a bit of an Empire Strikes Back sort of middle of a trilogy type deal, as it felt very unsatisfying as an ending. And that is, of course, because the side I was most invested in had a setback, though it was definitely a harder ending.

If you don’t know, this was a sequel to Book review: A History of What Comes Next, following two sets of aliens that are on earth. One set are men, the Trackers, who are violent and tracking the Kibsu, the women. We were told that if they are able to signal their home world, it’ll be bad for Earth. So the Kibsu have been hiding from the Trackers for over 3000 years.

In this novel, we keep following Mia, and now her daughter Lola. The space race element of it centres around the journey of Voyager 1 and 2, the years passing as the small probes get built and then make their grand tour through the solar system. This means that it does feel a bit more fragmented than the previous novel, which I felt had a bit more solidity with the main story arcs. Maybe I’m imagining it, just because I liked the first novel more. Also maybe it’s because I knew more about Voyager so all those snippets were too familiar to keep me as interested. I was more interested in the little side quest (that sort of turns into the main quest) of a blow, belonging to the original Kibsu.

I liked Lola and Mia enough, but they just felt a bit too frazzled as characters. And Lola was repeating the same sort of behaviours as Mia at her age. So it felt slightly repetitive. I also don’t like happened with their story arc. It just felt unfair and uncharacteristic of what the Kibsu had been doing for 3000 years. Maybe it’s the difference of time and something needing to change in a more modern world. But still, I felt sad at the end. It had a similar intense ending to the first, but it just felt like it happened all too quickly, with not enough plot to hold it together. There was a lot of train of thoughts moments of dialogue, which I am sure were in the first, but felt a bit too much this time around.

There’s still lots to like and I think I’ll find redemption in the third novel, which sounds like it’ll be different than the Tracker-Kibsu hunt in the last two novels. It’s really short and easy to read, and I think some of what came to pass in this novel, will hopefully have a pay off in the next one. I’ll definitely pick it up, because I want to know what happens and the sad ending of this one isn’t enough to put me off the next one.