Everything I loved about the first book, the second book built on. The politics have higher stakes. The characters begin to really grow in interesting ways. Where the first book wrote rules, the second book breaks them in a way that never feels contrived or arbitrary. And the humor is still there.

I am still thinking about why I think the humor in this series is such an important part of it. I'm not 100% sure yet, but I think it's because as high stakes as the story is, it's still a series about humans who grow and laugh. Maybe humor is just important to me because it's where I look for characterization. Like I said, still thinking about it.