YMMV / Children of Ruin

• Author's Saving Throw: One of the complaints about the first book was that it took Humans Are Bastards too far; it seemed like humans could never do anything without fighting each other, and it's mentioned that part of the reason the old Empire fell was because people wouldn't stop fighting their civil war even after the virus killed their life support. Here, the old Empire scientists never fall into fighting, and there's no sign of the infamous factionalism. It's also noted that the infamous virus wasn't some inevitable result of the war, but probably the losing faction refusing to go down quietly.