Well, read it. It’s... on brand. Bigger stakes, but the same tics as the original. A lot of people are gonna hate it. Only one Trek reference that I recall, but to be fair, it’s a big one.
It’s maybe not as much fun as the original, it’s got heavy references but much less of them this time I would say. It’s a bit tick box, both in plot elements and sort of in how it addresses real world politicking to an extent.
It is very much an eighties/nineties style sequel. Mainly nineties I would say. There’s a sort of ghostbusters two feel to the first half ‘and then things when to crap, get the band back together new threat’ but it picks up at about forty percent in.
It’s good to be honest, if not great. Cline does what cline does, and to expect different would be silly. I like that he’s part of this kinda new wave geek made good thing happening in literature.