This second book took me forever to read, and not just because of how incredibly long it was. The story starts off really slow directly after the events of the first book. My only true qualm with it was just how slow the building of events was. The main characters seem to have hit the lowest of lows for the first half of the book, they are struggling politically and a lot of the structure had changed from carrying out an insane plot and plan to dealing with and struggling with other people.

While I love all the characters for awhile there I was bored with the content, the mysteries were slow to unravel and took a long time to start making coherency and intertwining compared to the first book. Why did I rate this book so high then? Every other aspect of it was AMAZING!

The characters and the world building once more ended up really driving the story along. I stuck around through all almost eight hundred pages over two months of reading because of how well developed and complex these characters are. A main theme between the characters was debating between what was ethically right and what would be best for the world. Is it truly doing could if the means to get there are not good? They asked complex questions that created a lot of frustration but only added to the urgency of reading the book.

Some characters did have some odd interactions with each other such as the Breeze and Allrianne, and Zane's entire character but I'm blaming that on his characters other predicaments.

Also, in true Brandon Sanderson fashion the last 200 hundred pages of the book made it all worth it. I'm really good at predicting plot twists in books and movies and every single twist he had in store left me shocked, one hundred percent devastated and reeling for more. I think I did read the last two hundred pages in the span of two days just because of how engaging the novel had become. I know most people wouldn't think it was worth it to suffer through a lot of frustration just for the end of a book, but It was so well written and cohesive that I would do it all again if I could.

I'm so excited to read the final book in this trilogy (But a bit devastated because the next part of the series isn't about these lovely characters) My one hope is that the action starts a little bit sooner!