Why are second installments of trilogies so bad? (There's a Pop Culture Happy Hour for that.)
This book supports the thesis.
Subject to the curse of second installments in trilogies, this one could actually be skipped and you'd have a more enjoyable experience with the space trilogy.
It didn't advance the Story Arc. It did have a ton of sermonizing. And a ton of explaining. (Less explaining is the quality that can make these things work.)
What was the worst, though, was the time spent on each element of each sermon. The last mile wasn't left for the reader. There were no winks to the knowledgeable, nothing left unsaid. It was all in here, all stated, and all mind-numbing. The conceit of this was theology plus fun, but it wasn't. Not fun.
In which the author of the above realized people would read his esoteric and confusing theology in a science fiction book because fun. This book needs a thorough edit, something you can't do to a Great in His Time.