It took me longer than expected to click with this one. It came off as something of a retread: young men struggling to find themselves and women struggling for agency, all in the context of another foreign plot throwing another city of the Khaiate into turmoil. It seemed we had jumped forward 13 years and all that had changed was the absence of Amat, the first book’s most interesting character. And while I never quite shook that first impression, the plot does pick up and the time shift does prove justified, with Maati and Otah’s increasing acceptance of adulthood standing out in contrast to the new, younger narrators. It’s a proper sequel, and a decent one at that.