Firstly, I don't remember what happened in book 1! Only that I enjoyed it and can vaguely recall the ending. Even as events in that book were referred to in this book, all we needed to know was that they were catastrophic and things were about to go even worse.
As with all multiple POVs books, it takes me some time to settle and enjoy the reads but as, at least, 1 character/perspective was vaguely familiar already and the others so easily likeable, this took a bit less time. The plot was a totally different matter as there were complex arrays in a vast setting (space with multiple planets, governments, and organisations) so you really need to be switched on. While it started with a bit of an explosive action, it did slow down a little bit but as soon as you past the halfway mark, it was pretty much nonstop full tension and ended with a bit of a cliffhanger that something even worse is coming up in book 3.
As with all multiple POVs books, it takes me some time to settle and enjoy the reads but as, at least, 1 character/perspective was vaguely familiar already and the others so easily likeable, this took a bit less time. The plot was a totally different matter as there were complex arrays in a vast setting (space with multiple planets, governments, and organisations) so you really need to be switched on. While it started with a bit of an explosive action, it did slow down a little bit but as soon as you past the halfway mark, it was pretty much nonstop full tension and ended with a bit of a cliffhanger that something even worse is coming up in book 3.