Okay, I read this before the second one. This is because I believe that Amadeus/Asmodeus is awesome (in all senses of the word), and I wanted to get to know him better. Mission accomplished. Although I found his story the more interesting of the two strands, that doesn't mean that the other is dull. In fact, I think I might have enjoyed this book even more than the first one. It certainly didn't hurt that there was more of it to read.