Across the Sea of Suns, by Gregory Benford

This was a really interesting and fun read. As a sequel to the first installment of the Galactic Center Series, this book really hit the spot: it was better written in that the focus became clearer and the story was very gripping. The disappointment I had was not with this book, which ended is a suspenseful and exciting cliff-hanger, but in the volume that follows it in the series. I rushed to buy the next installment hoping for continuity and what I found was a big leap in time starting off at a completely different place in the story, far ahead in the future. I got so annoyed at this reinventing of the whole storyline that I decided to put aside the third volume for a time. When I have managed to dissociate myself for where book 2 ended, I'll be in good shape for reading the rest of the series for what it is and not for what I wanted it to be.