The narrator, as before is the Messenger, Comet Jant Shira, who is quickly sent on a mission with the new Serein and the Sailor, to a newly discovered island, Tris. The island is inhabited by refugees from the former fifth land of the "Fourlands." It is these envoys' mission to persuade the Trisians to join the Empire, but their mission fails, due to the Trisians' satisfaction with their (implausible, I thought) utopia. They also blunder and release a deadly Insect on Tris.

There are essentially three conflicts to be resolved. First is the problem of what to do with Tris. Second is a revolution being fomented by the deposed Swordsman Gio Ami. And third is Jant's concern with his wife Tern's evident unfaithfulness. This book does actually mesh its plot strands better than The Year of Our War, as all three of these strands end up being resolved more or less in parallel.

We are treated to something of a reprise of Jant's issues with his drug addiction, and of Jant's drug-induced trips to the parallel worlds of the Shift. The Shift remains a fascinating and original creation -- but also a bit frustrating. Steph Swainston either does too little or too much with the Shift. That is, relatively little of the book is set there, a pity as it is quite intriguing. But too much of the resolution of the plot depends on something of a deus ex machina from the Shift.

This book does bring to the fore some more detail of the political structure of the Empire of the Fourlands, and some details of its history. Questions are finally raised about the legitimacy and virtue of this political system. All this is to the good, and I suspect that if Swainston plans further books in this setting these issues will be central. But on the whole No Present Like Time shares too many of The Year of Our War's weaknesses and doesn't do enough new. Again, this is not a bad book, but it is a flawed book, by an author certainly worth watching, but one who has not fully mastered her talent yet.