"The Runaway King" by Jennifer Nielsen

With publisher pressure on YA authors these days, one wonders if it is really up to the writers as to how long their stories run.  In the case of this tale, a sequel proves unfortunate.  The first book in the series introduced us to Sage, a clever street urchin with surprising survival skills.  The book was well-written, fresh, and a solid fantasy which I very much liked.  As one of my students said, however, the sequel is derivative ... of the first book.  The young man said it perfectly, in that this book feels like the exact same story as the first in terms of plot.  It is also very slow.  After a big fight in chapter one, almost nothing happens for the next half of the novel.  Sage is moody, he pouts, he's not nice to others, and then he is finally pressed into action (which becomes quite violent at times).  The last third of the tale is fine, but by then it is hard to care.  With apologies to Ms. Nielsen, I'm probably skipping out on book number three.