I know the second book of a trilogy often suffers from sequelitis/bridge syndrome. Never as good as the first book and just setting everything up to bridge what was teased in book 1 and will come to its climactic conclusions in book 3. That being said this was dull, uninspired, and a trudging read. I’d quite enjoyed book 1 when I read it years ago and I was finally getting round to reading book 2 as I’m working through my TBR pile. Based on this book I’m going to Wikipedia what happens in book 3 and not put myself through slogging through it. As whilst I would hope it would be better than this sullen trudge through barely concealed dislike of the catholic church (and I say this as an atheist with an Irish protestant mother) that is just awfully written and frankly managed to make the church, even with all their various negatives, come out in a paradoxically better light. As the plot limps forward through the book it’s as though the imagination and creativity that Hoffman had for book 1 was rapidly draining away and with it any attempts at ingenuity or allegory is lost and replaced by a plot and point that is even clunkier than a knight in medieval armour trying to dance the jive. The only reason this is getting two stars and not one is because it isn’t as bad as Moby Dick or the Parson’s Tale.