Because I read Lamentation earlier this year, and thought it was alright, at best. It had entertaining scenes to it, some interesting characters, a potentionally interesting world.... But somehow the world just never came alive for me. Like Isaak himself, it's just a robot and not a live world.

Perhaps it's because the book really was important scene after important scene, with little chance to get to know the characters, or maybe it's just something about his writing style, or even just my imagination... Either way, it didn't leave too favorable an impression on me.

So back to my original question, how much of an improvement over the original is the second book? Because even though I didn't think so highly of the first one, if the second one shows signs of having moved in the right directions I'd be willing to give it a try.