"Our most sacred tradition on Earth is warning your guests how f------ spicy the food is."

"What - what, you just grab random mushrooms in the woods and eat them?"
"Turou I'm a criminal, not a savage. I don't shove random forest growths into my mouth." (Two of Ada's new friends Turou and Baoji suffer from culture shock when they see Ada eating random shrooms she found growing on a tree)

"Captain Hesk, I believe? Your ship seems to be suffering from erratic behavior and a black magic infestation. How can your government assist you?"

Book 4 has a lot of really funny sentences scattered here and there, but these don't spoil the plot and serve as a nice enticing reason why people should read this book series.

I am halfway into book 5 so I can't say for certain how much plot overlap happens between books 4 and 5 yet (so far I would say extremely little). The author has decided to perform a Game of Thrones sort of deal where two books of a long series are separated by the viewpoints of two main characters while the plot advances concurrently. Technically if Digitesque books 4 and 5 had more plot overlap, a diehard fan could cut chapters up and a reader that is sorely missing the nice contrast between Ada's manic speed and Isavel's relatively slower pace could perfectly enjoy the story by switching between both books. I won't know for sure how feasible this could be until I finish the 5th book but I would believe it is perfectly doable.

As such, is this book bad or good? Definitely good and cluttered with world building that will frustrate the reader as much as it annoyed Ada. We get hints in book 1 from Ada's spaceship Cherry that a jump gate called the Tannhauser is still functional orbiting Jupiter but Ada has a change of heart and decides to first resolve the ghost infestation problem on Earth instead of visiting the long-lost colonies of which her ship has scant data because Union ships have seldom visited the Sol system for at least 500 years.

When Ada gets the chance to interact with real humans, she makes the difficult decision to leave Isavel behind to accompany them to the Union, learn about their society and improve the derelict Earth.

While amazed by how physically different she is from Union humans (apparently Earthlings are insanely tall, heavy, physically super strong, impervious to infectious disease and poisoning, don't need to sleep every night and die looking middle age with similar lifespans as normal humans). If Ada was capable of breaking someone's skull with a modest shove, imagine a really buffed up Earthling like Isavel. Isavel could potentially break someone's neck with her pinky finger. Union humans are pretty much unchanged from our time and as this book evolves, we begin to learn about the hidden secrets of Earthlings and how the technophage might have been almost a blessing in disguise.

Ada is horrified to discover the 12 Union planets are insanely overpopulated. Worse, she is flustered by toilets, showers (seems like Earthlings suffer from a bad case of BO and nobody bothered to tell them), public nakedness, bikes, stasis pizza boxes, Union humans don’t have gifts, doorbells and has to learn how to control her volatile temper in a society where people do unpleasant jobs for money (a concept she doesn't understand at all) and a hostile military that very quickly ruins her grand welcome as Earth's first technophage immune diplomat of sorts. She also discovers Union humans speak a different variant of the Ancient's English but she quickly learns the language. Perhaps a little too quickly for everyone's comfort.

If there is one thing that many readers will struggle with this otherwise very well-written book, it's the insane speed it goes as Ada spends at least 60% of the story trying to run away from the military and anti-evolution terrorists. We get wonderful moments meeting her new Union friends: Turou (a ming vase, extinct plant and anything ancient Chinese cultural fan), Elsa (her bodyguard who conveniently looks a lot like Isavel which causes a few funny scenes) and a Mirran cat alien that loves pizza named Baoji. The book also takes place in two of the Union planets: the frozen world Freyja and the tiny chinese-esque moon Chang’e and those scenes were really cool. We get to learn a few things about the Hispanic inspired planet Tlaloc and a brief mention of Vesta as well. I found it to be a shame Ada didn’t get to stick around long enough to learn some Mandarin because it would have been a funny source of deja-vu from all of the times she had trouble using the Chengdu ship in book 3 and finally learned what dratted things the ship was trying to tell her.

Ada's intolerance when she discovers Chang’e cherry trees aren't blooming in the summer and complete disregard to practically extinct ginkgo trees are one of the very few moments the book gets to relax. So yes, this book while showing a lot of really nice world building and the explanation behind the rather lackluster technology of the Union in comparison to the derelict wonders of Earth's ruins is sadly overshadowed by the insane amount of nonstop action in this book. The weird thing is that for all the hyperactivity you get in this book, the (really awesome) ending is actually a breath of fresh air slower speed.

In a way, if it is possible to fully separate scenes of books 4 and 5 without affecting the plot, I think readers should give that a try to avoid feeling so overwhelmed with the pacing in this book. I am certain book 6 where everything comes together is going to be epic. ( )