More Manga: Twin Spica 2

I was interested enough in the story started by the Cybil Finalist Twin Spica 1 by Kou Yaginuma to ask for the second book, because the story of kids learning to be astronauts seems like a lot of fun.  I'm getting impatient with this series though, because the second books seems to spend even more time with set up and there isn't really much action.  We again see the various characters who have made it through the entrance exams, we get reminded of their roles (loyal friend, disdainful aristocrat, snide bystander, etc.), but this is all repetitive.

As an ex-lifeguard, I wasn't all that impressed with the water scenes, either from a safety aspect or the details of the various rescues attempted.  That was the main physical action.  Then we had a lot of flashbacks, very slowly providing new insight into the crash the spun everything into motion years ago.  But I found the pace drained this plot of tension, and I only felt impatience when the teachers tried to use some of the limited information to convince the heroine to quit.

I'll probably try one more, but then forget to summon the others if it doesn't grab my attention.  I'm slowly getting better at reading the left-turning manga, but it's still unnatural enough that a book has to work even harder to draw me in.