Book #2 jumps right into the action, skipping forward a decade. All the main characters are back and working for the Earth Defense Corps (run by our favorite morally-questionable and nameless interviewer) in a race to save humankind from an alien robot invasion. Kara and Vincent's evolution into a weirdly adorable couple was awkward at first, but I came to love the interactions between the two of them. I also really like how complex Rose has become - she's far more than the little girl that stumbled upon an alien robot hand decades ago, but is she any more than a bunch of atoms? That whole discussion was really fascinating and was what I love most about this series. It's a story about aliens that rests heavily on the idea of "what does it mean to be human?" Are we really the most evolved beings in the universe? How did we get where we are now? The characters have a lot of depth to explore, even Mr. Interviewer ((view spoiler)[man, will I miss him. That scene was crazy! I hope he somehow makes a comeback through the notes Rose saved (hide spoiler)]). I'm really looking forward to Book #3 (the last sentence really left me hanging!) 
 Side note: Was anyone else thrown off by the glaring similarities between the Themis alien invasion and HG Wells's War of the Worlds? (view spoiler)[The aliens arrive but don't do anything for a bit, then they release a heat ray/white light that kills everyone in it's path, and then the deadly black smoke/white gas finishes off pretty much everyone else. Also, the main massacres occur in and around London. (hide spoiler)] I did some Googling thinking maybe Neuvel mentioned that Themis is some sort of modern retelling of War of the Worlds, but I couldn't find any nods to the original sci-fi alien invasion classic. This didn't make me like the story any less, but I found the comparisons so striking! Made me want to reread War of the Worlds.