Remanence

Excellent worldbuilding, alien history and cultures, with solid plotting in a new adventure

This hard SF followup to Fluency, about an alien ship discovered in the outer solar system and the adventure across the galaxy which follows, is a solid continuation of the series. Rather than being content to do a repeat of the first book, the author has further developed the worldbuilding, especially with regard to the alien history and cultures; the plotting is solid and goes new places; and I think that the writing skill has gone up a level as well.

There is a soupçon of romance in each book, which is easily skipped past (as I did) if you're not interested in reading a hot sex scene. I'll be looking out for the third book in the trilogy.