Definitely a fitting continuation of the first book, and now the young man is starting to fill out, both in skills and complications. I loved this book as much as I loved the first one, for all of the same reasons. 
 I cared about everyone. It is high fantasy, but there is so much realism and characterization that it puts the novel pretty high above the rest. The writing is so easy to dive into, despite the real complicated nature of the inner stories, that I've been going without sleep to keep reading. Even now, as I write this, I want to keep reading the third. It's a compulsion, a drive. If I were a berserker reader, I would have fallen into the booklust by now and wouldn't have let anything stand in my way. As it is, I got very close to losing my mind in a bookrage. 
 Soooo yummy, people. You need to read this series.