Books like A Day for Damnation

It's pretty rare for me to read a series where the first and second books are both amazing. This is a perfect follow up to the first book in the series. Everything I loved about the first book is still present, and in addition there is a significant advancement in world building and setting up for future books. Many authors seems to have trouble balancing setting up long-term plot threads while making a book interesting and well-paced.Then there is Gerrold's ability to throw in psychology and philosophy and somehow NOT make the book feel like it's being bogged down in pointless side discussions. Even though I've now read this book multiple times, every time I read it, I really appreciate how Gerrold puts so much effort into understanding people and behavior and life. I've been having trouble finding a book I actually want to read lately; nothing seems to interest me. But I went through this book just as into it as I was my first time. I think I'm starting to get why he hasn't written the fifth book yet: it has to be just as fantastic as the first four and I don't think that's an easy task if Gerrold isn't extremely inspired to write it. Unlike many other books, this seems like it was written with purpose, not just to throw out a story or make money. Also, apparently, there is an abridged form of this book since it's the copy I read most recently. And yes, the parts that are taken out are the sexually ambiguous/homosexual content parts and yes, they are important for subsequent books. The third books makes much less sense without the parts that were excised from the first and second books.