This book was not as good as book one. Far too little progression in the story compared to characters internal monologue. I appreciate the character building to an extent but a good amount of it is monologues that build traits that have already been established. I think this book could be a good bridge into a better 3rd book but overall was not impressed. The character called thirsty completely broke my “trance” of being in ludus and made the whole story feel completely ridiculous. I understand how it would theoretically make sense in the context of the universe given the characteristics of the great god dolos but I have to say that I feel like the whole character was an excuse for the author to spit his two cents about current political and social issues on earth regarding sexuality and gay people and while I have no issue with this on principle I think that having too many personal feelings from the author and long sections about something unrelated to this world on top of the character them-self being ridiculous and OP completely detracts from the gravity and seriousness of the events that transpire. It’s not that the author didn’t make these things happen in a way that could all be theoretically justified and make sense in the context of Dolos personality considering this is his world but I think they were unnecessary and heavily detracted from this story. It was a short one as is and didn’t need any extra crap. It feels like a book that was put out to placate and entertain until the release of book three which I understand but am not necessarily happy about. I would still recommend the series, and the performance is great (because he can do fairly convincing girl voices), but this book was much weaker than book one.