This story is awesome though I didn't find myself enjoying it as much as the first of the series. Something about it seemed off - there was an emergency every few pages it seemed and some of the story felt rushed. Regardless, the story is interesting and the physics is mind-blowing. The monolith is an object made by some long-lost civilization out of neutron star material and it leads to some amazing story telling. I like this book, but I am hoping the third of the series advances the story in a more detailed way.