Good Lord! Bring on the next one! ( )

I liked Senlin Ascends, the first book, but I loved this second book. At last there are some characters that I love reading about. I've also grown to like Senlin, which I didn't particularly like in the first book. All the crew mates have a special place in my heart now. Can't wait to read what happens next, although I am a bit scared because it seems as if the crew is split up. ( )

Like many books I buy, I anticipate that it will be as good as I hoped. And the long awaited sequel to Senlin Ascends did not leave me feeling cheated or disappointed.

Once again, Josiah brings us into a terrifying world where treason and misery is the order of the day, and Senlin and his newlyfound friends don't know if they should trust anyone, or risk starvation due to their idealism.

I would not like to spoil much about the plot, but it does take things in a different direction, where the focus is not just Senlin's desperate search for the ever elusive Marya. We get to know a little bit about the entire crew of social misfits and end up liking everyone despite their flaws and past misdeeds.

Josiah has a great knack for making the pacing neither slow nor fast, and before I knew it, I was already 30% into the story (which is always good to me because it means that I can read more books). We don't get to visit Pelphia yet, but the book pleases us with a few carrots to nibble on such as how many levels exist in the tower, what the top of the tower looks like, and why everyone is so obsessed with Ogier's painting. The blasphemy that Luc does to books and the overt indifference of the cat that accompanies Senlin during his tour of the Tower's most incongrentual library will spurn both cheers and moans from the reader.

If there is one thing that has frustrated me from the first novel which is magnified in this book, it's the value the Tower places on a woman just because she is in her child rearing years. Edith would be practically considered to be a worthless spinster to the genteel had it not been because she is already married to a dimwit (not that she cares what other people think which is what I really like about her), Voleta might have had a chance to impress pompous nobles if she wasn't so damn crazy, and then that leaves us with a dour impression when we see Iren's vulnerable side. It's a gut wrenching feeling I got from the series as a whole, but perhaps some of this might be dispelled in the third book.

All in all, while on most accounts the book is great, some of the plot points were very obvious from the very start of the book, and just like a certain scene revealed at the end of the novel where the Sphinx wishes to listen to a critique of a work of art from fresh new eyes, those little its and bits of story I predicted with accuracy did dim the surprise factor.. but just a teeny tiny bit.

It's a great series, and I'll surely enjoy reading the 3rd book. Therefore it's a hardy 4 1/2 stars from me! ( )

Now I enjoyed the second book a lot more than the first. Less episodic - more character development and plot development. ( )

Well, that was stressful. It's like the higher you go the weirder it gets.
Love the tiny bits of historical info about the creation and building of the tower.
(Iren, yes getting old sucks.) ( )