Griffin's books normally run in a chronological order, with frequent and sometimes confusing flashbacks. Yes this book goes back and starts chronologically somewhere in the middle of book one of The Corps and revisits people and places we've already seen and been to. This book also throws names at you, LOTS and lots of new characters and places, people who didn't exist in the first two books and yet appear in the time frame those two books take place in. If you put finished the 2nd book in the series and expected this to pick up where that left off with the characters you were reading about and interested in, you'll be sadly disappointed as most of the people we've already met have only supporting roles in this novel.