Here's an idea... Let's take all the characters you fell in love with in the first book (remember we left them in a "cliffhanger" in the first book as well), and completely ignore them for this book.

Howey did the two things I HATE in writing.

1) Ignore beloved characters, saving them for the next title.
2) Only writing a book that transitions to the climax expected in the next book (or last book).

DON'T PUSH OFF BELOVED CHARACTERS! And put some substance in the middle book of a trilogy...seriously. I'm tired of reading the second book in a trilogy only to find that it's a setup book for the final one. Setup, but at least have a good stand alone plot as well.

This one almost made me put the entire series down...