I knew this would be awful. I was not wrong.

It's the same damn problem as the previous book in the series. Every character is too damn clever for their own good. Most characters are paper-thin schemers. The whole basis of the story is just predicting whether an incident will be a double cross or a triple cross or a quadruple cross. "Aha! I anticipated you would double cross so I have taken the liberty of triple crossing you!" Then there is the nature of some of the artificial intelligences that are characters. Specifically that these AI characters pepper every conversation with meta-discussion on the nature of their existence. "I, an AI, am sorry for your loss. Am I actually sorry or am I just programmed to say that? We must discuss the nature of this at every utterance of a pleasantry."

This series, particularly the second and third books, have been so tedious.