The answer to the question of Theseus's ship would be a wasted breath if we didn't need to sail somewhere in the first place. A solid piece of evolving, fatalist sci-fantasy. It has impeccable "world"-building; it's as vast and lived-in as any Dune or Hyperion, but has the eminently readable, deeply personal gray areas of those Red Rising entries. Ruocchio has improved since the first book, but l'm not the first or last to say this. I think it's because Hadrian is no longer a naive shitstain disowned by his corrupt father, but now slowly becoming this mythical fiend of fate and blind luck. I NEED MORE OF THIS STORY. This has the coolest antihero/ villain-of-the-week I've read in a while. I enjoy all the stuffy politicking and the the cornucopia of good ol' Horrors pitted against humankind. Our protagonist acknowledges that he knows more human monsters rather than xeno, but he stands with his own people. It's a choice, and it's leading us on a wild ride.