Second installment in the Lilith’s Brood series. I feel like 3.5 would be the most accurate rating here. Had some fantastic passages and that the concept carries through from the first book - but it took me a long time to adjust to the move away from Lilith as the main focus. She was such a compelling character, and - maybe it’s my own shortcoming - it just felt like a slog to read through hundreds of pages of a child trying to figure out its way.

I also don’t know know how much I loved the endpoint of them preparing for Mars. Mars feels too…real??…to be the destination when the Oankali are such fiction. I don’t know. It felt like a strange choice to me.

Still a good book, like the concept and universe of this trilogy. A little too long with a few too many expositions on Oankali anatomy, but I overall liked it. Not the same page turner as Dawn, but maybe the last one can finish it out strong.