The Magician King

This sequel definitely was better than the first for me, Quentin was a lot less depressing but his signature personality was still intact, the story moved from a harry potter/Narnian approach into LOTR/hobbit territory and I was introduced into the deep workings of Grossmans' world, which had some really nice touches.
Surprisingly I was halfway through when I realised my approach to these novels had been wrong, that Grossman was indeed weaving a beautiful tapestry of satire from webs of fantasy tropes, I guess a couple of the tropes were too obvious (maybe deliberately so), because I then started taking the book less seriously, almost comically, and even had a giggle a couple of times at the irony knitted into the story.
The last 1/3 of the book was like a bunch of separate rails (some originating from the original book like the H.P. series is want to do), coming together into a fun roller coaster that quickly zips around tying many loose ends and serving a satisfying ending before delivering you behind a curtain into what you thought was the end of the books, but instead was an open invitation into the third entry of the series, for which I can hardly wait.