Despite immediately continuing the plot of the first book, everything else in this second book is jarringly different. The main character becomes really annoying and ineffectual, the pace of the story slows to an absolute crawl, the overarching mystery that was started in the first book all but disappears. 

Occasionally a talking skull pops up to remind us that the plot does exist but they’re usually stuffed in a closet and forgotten immediately. 

I can see that the author was trying to build tension and do a lot of worldbuilding but ending up including so much superfluous detail and scenes that everything becomes a slog to get through.