The first book was interesting enough, though I was disappointed by the lack of easter eggs for the original series. It would have been helpful to know the timeline if the characters in these books got the original universal messages. Just because it’s a side story, I don’t think you have to completely ignore the other ones.
This book, however, I swear, half of it did not need to exist. It felt like the worst part of any video game: grinding. And they weren’t even grinding to level up. It was to gain a relic, yet the entire time, it felt like it was leading up to nowhere.
It does ultimately lead to somewhere, and the last few chapters definitely got interesting again, but I genuinely think this book could have been about nine hours shorter. I started listening to the book at 1.5x speed. The only reason I would say not to skip entirety is if you read Dominion and want that sense of “oh snap, this is leading up to THAT!” Sort of feeling, though it may not be worth it for most (actually you only need to listen to the beginning of each chapter for Bilel’s journal entries to be honest).
Maybe the third book will feel more relevant, but as of right now, I’m hoping Jason beats Finn’s butt whenever they meet. His motives feel a bit shallow and desperate.