Not sure what's going on with this series. I was hoping for an improvement from the first book, expecting that the author was more-or-less catching his stride. But this installment was a meandering series of seemingly random events with nearly zero plot development, and characters that really didn't go anywhere from the first book.I ask myself these three questions: What were the characters doing at the beginning of the book? What were they doing at the end of the book? Do I know more about what's going on than I did at the beginning, or was this just filler? My answers were not promising.The main character himself is still an improbably young, impossibly over-skilled vengeance addict.A few deus ex-machina devices deliver the characters from certain doom on multiple occasions which make the story a little cartoon-buffoon-ish.I think the author here has a *lot* of potential. I like the flow of the prose, and how I never hiccup over the words or phrasing as a reader. I like the writing style, which is why I gave the second book a chance. At some point in the future I may give this author another shot, but not in this series, as the benefit of my doubt has just run out.*** spoiler alert below ****** SPOILER ALERT BELOW ***- How is it that three people about to be beheaded can fight their captors, jump down from the execution stage and *run* to their horses under the cover of a distraction? Did the jailers forget to cuff their legs? Were the cuffs opened remotely and magically?- For big, bad war demons, they're *remarkably* incompetent. In fact, they're not just remarkably incompetent, they're extremely conveniently incompetent. I'd rather have the 'mage who can do anything, anywhere, at any time' pop in and levitate everybody in the city simultaneously than have the "oh my gosh, the demons who wanted them dead showed up just in time to prevent any executions... and then let them get away!!!"- So the main character is seriously bad-a**... obviously must've seen pretty much everything already... because he's totally prepared for anything... but things get a little icky and he just goes flat out insane?- Why is the female lead (who I thought was a good character in the first book, but have reversed my opinion in this sequel) even giving a crap about this self-obsessed weirdo?
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