I didn't like this as much as the first book in the series, although it's hard to put my finger on exactly why. Part of it is I found the first chapter or so, where Soling is under constant threat of assault from the Emperor, very stressful to read. She gets out of that situation, but that's kind of the last time she has agency in the plot. The rest of the story has her dragged along on Chang-wei's mission, and Chang-wei himself doesn't have a lot of control of the situation. Soling comes off as much more passive than in the first book, and I suppose that is what diminished my enjoyment.