Rating: 4/5
In some ways I liked this volume better than the previous ones and there are some parts I didn't like as much. A catastrophic event at one of the "trees" left a lot of fallout. The trees are alien artifacts that landed on earth 10 years ago. Until recently they have not responded to any attempts to interact with them.
Volume two has a lot more focus than volume one. It only follows the storyline of two characters: the mayor of New York and a researcher stationed near the tree that blew up. These characters weren't as interesting to me. The mayor is corrupt and just seemed boring. He is so focused on political maneuvering that the star of this series, the trees, is just a sidebar. His actions seem to be setting the stage for future plotlines though.
The researcher is much more intriguing. First, we get to see bits of what happened directly after the event with the tree. Second, her part of the story gives a different view of what is happening in this future. Her expertise lets her move around the world more easily than others and brings her in contact with wildly different characters.
I like that both of these plotlines share a theme revolving around how the general populace would react to a given set of information. They parallel each other as a result, which makes the book feel more integrated. I wanted more from some of the other characters introduced previously, but these two did a good job of shifting gears.
There are some fantastic images used within the story too. The creators are able to imagine very different locations to set the story and bring them to life. They feel and look different from each other. This makes the setting feel more robust. The character art and the coloring are well done. There isn't anything glaring that felt out of place or turned me off from the book. While it has a different feel from the first book, it is a solid addition to the series.
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