I think I liked this volume even better than I did the first volume. Having familiarized ourselves with the two intelligent species in Rainbow City besides the human colonists, we are slowly led to consider a couple of others over the course of this book, and by shifting point of view between the different parties come to understand something pretty deep about the idea of consciousness and species identity. There are now two groups of humans, the Pacifist colonists and the "Earthlings" who volunteered to investigate what became of the colony now that a couple hundred years have passed. They have diverged considerably in their social systems (though the dystopian tendencies of Earth cultures were already making themselves known at the time the first generation of Pacifists left), so they are properly two distinct collections. Midway though the book they mount a quick expedition to another inhabited continent on Pax where they encounter creatures which are the same and yet different from what they have come to know, giving rise to a number of questions about the origin of life on the planet. At the climax of the story there is violent strife between the different power centers in Rainbow City, and by this time I was able to sympathize with more than one of the points of view (although the one chief bad guy never really does anything to redeem himself much at all). Then, finally, in the epilogue there's another long jump in time, at least for humans, not so much for plants, and the author closes the circle back to an Earth that was still far from a utopia. There is one alien intelligence that remains mostly a mystery, the dangerous corals which seek to encroach on the forest, except for a brief period where their thoughts are translated via technology. There is a kind of epic scope in one way, and yet also a cozy feel because of the way we never lose sight of the most fundamental motivations for all the actors: sunlight and water, warmth and food, family and happiness.

The various narrators are sketched out in an economical way so you can imagine their personalities through their actions and what other characters say about them. The worldbuilding is certainly rather extensive but never takes over from the focus on the characters, which I liked. Important things are constantly at stake and keep the tension up, even when it's time for a festival or just a communal meal.