If the first book hadn't focused so much on Vaelin, I believe I'd be marking this book with a 5 star. It has a fast pace, great characters, and, honestly, a pretty outstanding plot. 
 The problem is: not enough of Vaelin. Anthony Ryan introduced the method of multiple POVs into his second book, and I think that was a good idea. I particularly enjoyed Reva's POV, in addition to Vaelin's. The others were good, but the problem was they took away from so much of Vaelin's story. 
 This may not have been a problem if Vaelin had not been the obvious protagonist of the first book. But because he was so built up in the first book, and because, in my opinion, his talents make his story the most interesting to read, his lack of domination in terms of pages in this book made it feel lacking. 
 That said, the plot of this book really was great, unexpected, and added a whole lot of questions to my pile. Including the very last page. Wow.