Yikes. What a mess.

So, I took notes. There's really only two cases in which I do that:
1.) The book is a short story collection.
2.) I see problems.
And I saw many problems.

I do find most of the time, in a series, the second book does be better than the first, as the author gets to know the world and it's characters more the second time around. Very rarely do I find a series where the second book is significantly more flawed than the "pilot" book.

This book is a mess.
It does not feel like progression fantasy.
Kai does not teach Simon at all.
The premise is set up for a really effective way of being progression fantasy, by way of Valinhall; The Territory is supposed to constantly attack Simon, awake and asleep, to continuously test him and keep his instincts at its best, the rooms of the house contain trials that test and hone your skills and reward you with a powerful item.
Simon, doesn't get attacked in Valinhall anymore, he rarely tests himself in the rooms, and Kai is teaching him nothing.
How is this progression fantasy when nobody is progressing with their magic?

Alin is the only one unlocking new powers, but it doesn't even feel like progressing, because all he's doing is asking for more power, being warned he has to have the virtue to unlock it, and then him easily convincing them to throw away that rule and give him the power.

This book and the previous suffers from that annoying thing you see in soap operas and TV where someone doesn't tell someone vital information, even though a normal person would, simply so the other person will do something big and stupid and easily avoidable just so drama happens, and then they tell them later like "oh yeah, forgot to tell you, you shouldn't stop the sacrifices because then a big bad will be unleashed, oops, I was too busy training you to rescue the sacrifices to tell you not to rescue the sacrifices".

Yes, this happened, Simon's Master knew saving the sacrifices would cause the big bad homicidal and unbelievably powerful Incarnation to escape from the magic tree prison, and instead of telling Simon why he shouldn't save them, and that it is a "necessary evil", he instead keeps his mouth shut, trains the boy who specifically said he wants to train to stop the sacrifices, and then let's him go off to do that 😂 ARE YOU SERIOUS 🤣🤣🤣
No sacrifices means the Valinhall tree wouldn't contain an Incarnation, which Valinhall, including Kai, actually wants it contained. It makes no sense. Nothing is making sense, we're left in the dark for key parts that keep a story coherent.

I have no idea which side resonates with me. I don't know who's good and bad, who's morally right etc. I don't know which side to root for, and I don't know who the main character is rooting and fighting for either, because we're barely told anything of the world.
Simon is fighting for Valinhall, because of Kai and them taking him in and teaching him. But that doesn't mean they're on the right side.

I don't understand why they have to sacrifice 9 people a year to keep the trees fueled for containing the Incarnations and they choose to take a sacrifice from villages, why can't it be 9 criminals, why not choose some of the most deplorable and irredeemable criminals as sacrifices, people who would be imprisoned for life or executed? Why does it have to be random villagers who are innocent? As far as I can see, that's the only thing that made the Damascans seem like the bad guys in the first book, apart from some of the king's people lying, manipulating people and apparently executing people who are acting improper.
 
And then on the opposite side of the war, Enosh, they're the bad guys because they want to destroy the trees to release the Incarnations, which apparently will kill a lot of innocents and cause destruction. Why? Why do they want this? And why isn't Alin asking why this supposed to be the good guy side? Alin has stray thoughts every so often of him saying he doesn't want the Incarnations released and he agrees with Simon etc...and then he goes back to being on the side that wants to destroy the trees??? What? 🤣🤣🤣

Both Alin and Simon have had personality changes, somehow Alin is no longer a psychotic prick like Homelander, he's actually someone I pity now as he's just a superpowered pawn who's too dense and starved for validation that it makes him easy to manipulate. He actually seems to care for people now.
Simon, in the first book had a good heart but he was ignorant and scraping by through hard work and a mix of luck. In this book however, he's a bloody dumbass. Part of it is ignorance, thanks to Kai being a shite Master a nobody else really there to help guide him, but it's also Simon's fault because he never asks questions, he only asks the dolls questions, and they rarely give answers and just talk shite to him instead.

Leah is much more interesting now, she's probably the character with the most complexity and depth to her, she's questioning who she is, which is very relatable, but in this case she enjoyed the freedom, honesty and simplicity of being a villager, but she is an Heiress,

and now Successor to the throne,

and is afraid of it changing her into her father.

She's discovering she has feelings for Simon, except she doesn't realise it's romantic feelings yet, but it seems clear to me it's heading in that direction.

Kai is the comedic relief character who will probably be the most important character later at some point, but for now, he's useless and pretty one-dimensional and meh. He's written without substance. The end of book 1 revealed Induril as the man who saved Simon and his mother all those years ago, it felt like a setup for something interesting, like maybe he rebelled against Valinhall or he's undercover or something, but nope, everyone gets along, and despite Simon describing Induril and his chipped giant sword, Kai and everyone in Valinhall didn't tell Simon about him and feigned ignorance instead, for no apparent reason.

And then in this book, Simon finds out it's him, because he just showed up in Valinhall, and it was done so casually I was like "Huh? 🤨, that's the reveal? Whaaaa?" 🤣

The first person perspective is getting really annoying during combat scenes, Simon and Alin spend so much time just watching people fight and not getting involved. There are huge portions of fight scenes that are just Simon or Alin's perspective during a combat scene where they're just standing there or sitting there watching them, and then after a long time they say something like "It was time for Alin to get involved". Bro you stood there and watched your fellow fighters get slaughtered and killed while you just watched to describe it for us 😂

I thought the first book was a pretty good start and was a good setup for the rest of the books, but now it's clear that potential was wasted and book 2 was really disappointing.

This book is legit a mess, and disappointing.
This is a trilogy, this book is the halfway point if the series, as a reader I shouldn't know fuck all what's going on or even who the foes are.
I'm now moving on to the third and final book, City of Light. Please someone say prayers that the book ain't a soulsucking pile of shite.