This volume of the Book of the New Sun was a bit slow-going for me. It's a relatively short book - 250 pages - but the storyline is complex, the cast of characters is large and confusing, and the narrator is possibly unreliable even though he claims to remember everything that happens to him. This part of the story definitely amped up the surrealism, too, which didn't help as far as keeping things straight. I'm really enjoying this series so far, however, and I look forward to eventually reading parts 3 and 4. I think these two books have been on my shelf for a looooong time, and although I'm pretty sure I did read part one when I first bought them (maybe 10 years ago the first time), I know that this is my first time reading part two. One of the oddest parts of the story is that there is a rebellion going on that seems to involve the very person that rebels are supposedly going to overthrow. The autarch, supreme ruler of the realm, is revealed as an unassuming androgynous man who helps the main character on his way without revealing himself as the ruler.