Elizabeth Bear - Scardown

Four stars. Recommended.

This is the second book in the trilogy that started with Hammered. Again, the cover is misleading: the book is not about women with guns running around in skin-tight military uniforms. It's a grim vision of the future, where Canada and China are the two superpowers, racing to be the first to exploit alien technology to power them to the stars. Jenny Casey is forced to make difficult decisions about who trust, and who to care for--decisions that will affect not just her, but the whole world. Scardown is better than Hammered, but you really need to read them in order.