The second book deals with a new alien species that has been attacking colonies on the edges of Teixcalaanli empire. Mahit Dzmareis back on her space station and trying desperately to avoid having the council find out that her imago is damaged. Of course, the person responsible for it knows it is damaged and wants to get rid of that memory line because she believes it will keep the station safer. Three Seagrass is on duty when the call from the edge of the empire says they need a linguist, instead of kicking it upstairs she takes it as her case and goes to the grab Mahit to help her figure out just what these aliens are saying. There is so much more going on in the book with political intrigues both on the station and in the capital of the empire. The station is desperate to be gobbled up by the empire or destroyed by this new alien threat. The story is great, and I enjoyed how they discovered how to communicate with the aliens.