It was absolutely worth wading through the first book in this trilogy (Gregory Benford’s Foundation’s Fear) to get to this one. Greg Bear steers the trilogy back to something much more Asimov-ian, and shows his own skill and ingenuity in the process. Here were the characters I missed so much while forcing myself to read the first book of the trilogy, and it was truly wonderful to see them again. Unfortunately, there are enough references to the first book that it was probably necessary to read that first, but once you make it to this one, you won’t be disappointed. I could almost believe I was reading original Asimov. This was beautifully done.