I thought the first book in this series was decent enough, but that it didn't really live up to the potential of the main idea and was trying too hard to cram too many quirky things in. I'm glad I decided to read book 2 anyway, because I liked it a lot more! The idea of jumping between books and interacting with fictional characters was explored in a lot more detail, the coincidence / entropy device was handled well, anything with resurrected Neanderthals in it is a win in my opinion, and the remaining "trying too hard" elements such as all the weird character names (yegods, the names!) faded into the background while I focused on the rollicking good story. Well done to my sister for buying me books one and two together so I'd keep going - I'll definitely read the rest of the series now.