Since the characterization was so well done in the first novel, this one needed little effort to keep them all fleshing out. The most stark difference was one that I was counting on and was very pleased to see: I was expecting battle, and by god I got a ton of it. It wasn't all simple repetition, either, it was gloriously different on every front, and for that I was very grateful. Never a boring part. 
 The place where the book really shined, at least for me, was the joke near the very end. Perhaps some readers might not appreciate it, but I did. I see great things on the horizon as a reader, safe in his omniscient seat. I did laugh with the results, oh yes. 
 I'm really looking forward to the third book now, expecting still greater changes for everyone. Some, much, much more than others. I'm thinking of a boy with a crooked jaw, for one. 
 Great stories, every one! (The whole novels are very much intact as one, but when I think of them from afar, they all appear very distinct and enjoyable in themselves, like tales that could have stood on their own without the intersections we've seen, and yet, everything is still quite enriched.) 
 It takes a deft hand, and I'm pleased to keep up with it.