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Book two of The Expanse has the same outline structure. Bad things happen, a man becomes very single-focused obsessed with finding a missing person, he runs into James Holden, mayhem ensues.

Structurally, it is different. We do change viewpoint characters, but instead of two characters operating in different in-novel genres, we have four different viewpoints. This varies things out, they’re all grounded in more regular SF, just with their own knowledge and worries. Even better, we’re not on a fixed rotation between them, and the story is allowed to bounce between them far more naturally.

The inciting event here is a creature suddenly appearing and wiping out nearly everyone in two marine units on Ganymede. One Martian, one Terran. This isn’t well or easily understood at first, and shooting starts between the two sides, largely wrecking infrastructure on Ganymede. Which is also the breadbasket of the outer colonies. This drives a lot of just-off-screen action, as things break down, but the overall crisis is still developing and is much slower moving than the book; which is to say the next couple of lean years have yet to play out.

The monster is definitely related to the protomolecule, the MacGuffin from the first book. Everything else about it is mysterious, and finding just who is up to nasty shenanigans this time is the main driver of the plot.

So, yes, anyone who wants to say this is something of a repeat of the first book has a real good point to make. But there’s plenty of differences outside of the highest-level concept, and I find the cast of characters much better balanced this time. So, it feels a bit familiar, but it does much better.