The second volume of the monster manual, but what is really the third official volume collecting monster for use with AD&D, after the first Monster Manual and the Fiend Folio, is full of goodies but it is also slightly disappointing. 

Lighter on iconic monsters than the two previous volumes, it still includes some all time greats, such as the Tarrasque, the Behir, the Modrons and a bunch of Devils and Demons. Confusingly, however, as if the distinction between Devils (Lawful Evil and live in the 9 hells) and Demons (Chaotic Evil and live in the Abyss), Gygax introduced the Daemons (Neutral Evil, and live in between the hells and the abyss). Not only are the Daemons verbally almost indistinguishable from the Demons, it’s just adding more confusing content to an already confusing game distinction.

A lot of the monsters here had appeared before in Adventures modules (such as the Cloaker, the Drider or the Myconids), and unfortunately this was a lost opportunity in using some of the great artists working for TSR, most of the illustrations are pretty lacklustre, worse than in the first volume and the Fiend Folio, both of which had truly memorable art with unique contributions by people like Dave Trampier, Erol Otus and Russ Nicholson, among other greats. Still, if you wanted more beasties for your games you could do much worse than this.