All Hail Chaos (Time of Iron #2), by Sarah Rees Brennan

All Hail Chaos is the second book in the romantic fantasy series Time of Iron, written by Sarah Rees Brennan and published by Orbit Books. An excellent sequel that picks where its predecessor left the plot, embracing its strengths, especially regarding to how well Brennan executes the whole meta-fantasy idea while intercalating funnier bits alongside the road, and giving us a marvelous story that sets more pieces in motion in preparation for what promises to be deliciously chaotic finale.

We pick up Rae after the events of the first book: the Emperor has returned too soon for the original plot, and Rae might have messed up a bit with the character development, making him probably the most unhinged character in the whole series. Rae knows she's practically on borrowed time, so she quickly develops a new plan to see if she can take the story back to the rails; however, many things might end shattering it, and this time she won't have the help of her allies, as most of them are on the run.

At this point in the series, you might expect certain things from this novel, and Brennan doesn't disappoint: not only how she weaves the own concept of meta-fantasy, and how Rae knows she's into a fantasy series (side note, I always think of the phrase: "in a horror film, a character doesn't know they are on it, so that's why they take bad decisions", but that doesn't prevent her from trying to scheme and take risks, trying to take the story back to the point she knew, but we also have an excellent example of character development in most of the cast. In particular, I think it's really interesting how Brennan tackles loneliness and how illness can be the cause, how your support net can vanish when the circumstances goes awry; but also, I already loved Key, and this unhinged, almost psychopathic version of him got me to laugh so so much, even if it mights frighten me a bit.

The worldbuilding continues mimicking what you could have expected from a classical fantasy series, but subtly introducing those changes that have been caused by our villainess and, at least in my opinion, it slowly shifts towards more modern fantasy tropes (and especially, towards the end, it picks one of my favourite ones).
In terms of pacing, I practically flew across the pages, as Brennan keeps your attention always high, maintaining the reader at the edge of their seat, doing an excellent job at balancing the different POVs that are in movement during the plot.

I loved All Hail Chaos, and honestly, if you are an avid fantasy reader and love a bit of witty humour combined with the twists of the own bones of what makes fantasy in a story, I seriously recommend the Time of Iron series. I can't wait to see what happens in Kill Your Darlings!