Not as good as the first one, but still great. This is basically a re-imagining of Aladdin (though it was written before the Disney movie came out), with some of the elements from Howl's Moving Castle thrown in. To the author's credit, the characters feel much more real than in other versions of this fairy tale I've read/seen. I also wouldn't really call this a "sequel" but more of a companion book. The characters from the first book do appear, but not until near the very end. Or so you think.