Book 1 was unconventional and mesmerizing, but here in book 4 it’s a tired, meandering story with uninteresting new characters that go nowhere and do nothing. And what is with the excessive amounts of soundscape effects? This isn’t radio drama! Jeff and Annie do an incredible job with the voices… leave it at that, or just a few touches- No one needs to hear random soldiers barfing, or background battles, or other cutesy crap in the background. If you’re relying on sound effects, you’re not writing the book correctly. Set ups and payoffs? Nah, who needs those. And oh lord, how many times does the author completely stop any and all forward narrative momentum with phrases like, “that said,” “although”, “as to that”, “nevertheless,” in order to clarify some meaningless plot point no one was wondering about or needed clarification on. It’s the literary equivalent of stuttering. Just tell the damn story. Have a direction, create suspense, rising conflict, a twist or two. Here everything seems random, forced, haphazard, and simply infuriating.