Before you read this book, please make sure you read the first book in the series, The Pattern Ship (The Pattern Universe), or this one won't make much sense.
Overall, this is a good / quick-read science fiction series of Earth's first contact with another species. Readers who enjoyed the first book should like a continuation of the story but the "real" material is short and there is a lot of filler in the story that should have been edited out. The editing problems with the first book, such as being comma'd to death and incomplete sentences are amplified in this version and really distract from the reading experience and take away a star in my review.
I did enjoy the continuation of the tale, and will give #3 in the series a try when it becomes available.