The Expanse, pt. 2: Caliban's War

Caliban's War, the second novel in James S.A. Corey's Expanse series, hits a lot of the same notes that the first novel does.  The crew of the Rocinante returns, with a few new additions, to continue their battle with the protomolecule. 
The novel opens with the crew fighting space pirates at the behest of the OPA, the newly-legitimized Outer Planets Alliance.
At the end of Leviathan Wakes, the protomolecule has crash-landed on Venus and no one really knows what it is doing there.  Of course this doesn't last long and there is a new threat for the new book.
Holden and his crew adopt a similar mission to the first book, seeking out a lost daughter.  Mei, the young daughter of Praxidike Meng, had lived on Ganymede and was kidnapped by her doctor with other immuno-compromised children.  The structure of the novel is similarly shaggy-dogged as the first novel as the authors juggle many different players in the game.  The crew of the Rocinante is always central to the action, but the stakes remain very high with cold-warring colonial factions and a threat to humanity.
The alterations to the protomolocule work well for the new novel and Corey manages to keep all of the players more or less clear.  I was a little dismayed that the second novel in was already recycling a lost-daughter plot, but it ends up working out well as a motivating factor.  The wider world of the Expanse now knows who the central characters are, so they are able to use this to their advantage in funding their mission. 
As I write this, I am finding it difficult to summarize the plot and to organize my thoughts about it.  This is partially because there is a lot going on in this novel and I don't want to get too bogged down in details.  This is also partly because I think I want to like this more than I do.  The books have been enjoyable and I don't have any real complaints about them, but something is keeping me from diving into the series a bit more fully.  I haven't figured out what that is yet, and I know that this makes for bad writing.  For now, I am going to continue reading the books.  I am interested in ferreting out what it is that is blocking me. 
So  stay tuned for another lack-luster installment in this blog series that muddles through a novel that probably deserves better.