This book starts off right where book one ends, so readers are catapulted right back into the action. And boy is there action. There's also schemes, humor, emotion, a bit of political resistance. With much of the world-building done in book one, book two gets to focus on more in-depth topics like character dynamics. However, due to the nature of the game, with each new floor reached having new monsters and goals, there is still some world-building involved. This keeps the book interesting and novel, and prevents the pacing from getting to be too quick. The pacing is definitely fast, but in a good way. Poor Carl and Princess Donut get no down time between fighting, strategizing, and appearing on TV. All in all, this is an awesome book, part of a larger, awesome series.