Things really start to get complicated in book two of the series and we now know the stakes are much higher than originally thought. Yes there are countries at war with each other, but the real fight is taking place at a different level. There is a second conflict going on within the war between those who seek to control the Godstones and those who want to destroy them. What makes this complicated is those two factions don't perfectly align with the national war that is underway. The real conflict is pretty much the PoV characters against everyone else when it comes to the Godstones and the bigger war is just muddying up the landscape. Mad Ben Styke, General Vlora Flint, Taniel Two-Shot, and Michel all have interesting storylines, but their lives are on the line every step of the way. 

Michel's storyline is probably the most interesting of the bunch as his role as an embedded spy just gets more and more muddied. Originally he was a spy within the secret police, known as the Black Hats, and working to undermine them when the city was invaded. Now he appears to working for the occupying force, the Dynize, as he pretends to be a Black Hat turncoat that has switch sides; however, he is really still working for his original employer and seeking to find and rescue a Dynize who goes by the name Marra. A practically impossible task that will once again muddy the waters to the point where Michel has a hard time keeping straight who he really cares about, and who he needs to betray and when that needs to happen. He grows to care about his Dynize colleagues and his inner turmoil puts his entire mission at risk

I feel like this second trilogy offers up a much more interesting array of characters and it is easy to get caught up in rooting for them to succeed. The first trilogy was carried by the story arch, but this is one is strong on both the story and character fronts and highly recommended. For the audiobook, Christian Rodska is once again back at the mic and he delivers yet another solid performance. His Mad Ben Styke voice really makes the character but it should be noted that Christian was too ill to record the final book of the series, and his replacement's voice for Mad Ben Styke is extremely different. Not in a good way.