Inkspot Fancy

How is it that in the space of a little over a month, I got two book 2s in different series that did not want to admit on the cover that they were actually book 2's?

"The Ruling Sea" at least managed to introduce me to characters I really cared about and liked, a plot that I could follow and only a few plot threads from the first book that they didn't explain very well. In fact, there was only one major detail of the setting and story that I didn't really understand. The main characters are living on this huge ship, along with a few hundred other people, and they're allowed their own quarters, given food and generally have run of the ship. But there's plenty of people - at times it feels like most of the people - aboard who would love to kill them. And yet they don't. They just let them run about and make mischief, and occasionally collar them (sometimes literally) then they want something. This was sort of explained in that killing one of them can cause something bad to happen and they don't know which one. But man, just lock them in a cell or something.

That aside, this was a pretty entertaining book, a seafaring adventure with talking animals, mostrous insects and storms like you wouldn't believe, to say nothing of murder and magic. This book is one of those middle books that has a somewhat lacking start-to-finish plot and feels more like setup for the next book, but the fact is there IS a start to finish plot. That puts it miles ahead of many a book 2. That said, I don't think I'll be moving on. This was a good diversion, picked up as part of a grab bag at the library sale, and worth the time I spent, but I didn't like the world or characters enough to want to press forward.