Quick backtrack.... the first book in the series esrablished the hero, the universe, and its inhabitants. Necessary, and interesting. Some shooting, killing, and stabbing also necessary to set the tone of these stories. I gave it a low “3”. Not too bad for summer reading.
This second book, however, pretty much goes nowhere, and, most of the way thru — unlikely to finish — is mind-numbing. Wholly repetitive situations, lots of numbers, and endless discourses on available core power. Absolutely as boring as a 2nd rate Engineering text. We don’t even get to know if the few characters are tall,short, have wavy hair, or like to play chess?
So, the missing elements are...an interesting story, and characters about which to care.
Blah!