This expands on the first book beautifully across multiple fronts - plot, setting, and characters. I admire how it handles so much depth without coming across as pretentious. Heck, it can reference its own internal history via epic poems and still not feel pretentious. It feels like every word has been chosen deliberately, perfectly, but somehow without taking itself too seriously. That tightrope walk is incredible.

This book could have so easily failed. Second books in a series are especially tricky beasts, as a sequel to a fabulous award-winning debut the pressure must have been off the charts. Incredibly well done.