A really good follow-up to the first book, with some interesting elements to think about referring to populism, or in this case specism. 

I enjoyed returning to Patch's world to see him deal with the trauma of having pushed Erner off the dracogriff, to have Barver's history and culture looked into more (some nice themes there about multi-culturalism, too) and to have Wren finally free to pursue her interests in a human form. 

A bit slow in places, but overall a good paced book, and leaving a good setup for the third book of the series.