Dont read the second one then. I did. Bad mistake. I still have it somewhere if anyone wants it.
One of my old Captains, who in a more maudlin moment or two, used to say that certain periods define a mans life, and the sadness is that they can't maintain that standard post conflict. That it would have been better for some had they not made it through a conflict, to let them die the hero, untarnished, and remembered as such.
Read that second book, and I could almost agree with him.