For the record, I still think IC is a great well-written book. Even though I struggled with aspects of it book kept me engaged enough till the end. But it never quite clcked for me, there was no moment I went from "I like this" to "I lOVE this !"
Ultimately, I liked TCF more. It had smaller scale, was tighter, more focused and self-contained. I could sympathize with Blue, I could hate Dorian,, I was happy and unfortunately I didn't find anybody quite like that in the second book
And as with TCF, the best thing that came out of IC were bunch of interviews Alex did in aftermath of book's release. Such a nice fella with interesting views and good sense of humour