After the Evolution I was ready to give up on the series; then came Dominion, which was better. Still, I was hesitant, would Hellion help this series to find its way back to going strong, or was it going downhill after all?
Well, in my opinion this book succeeded in being great again – such a relief! We’re back to the same level of excitement and entertainment as the first two novels. I think one of the reasons is that most of the plot is in-game again, there are hardly any real world scenes. Also, the in-game adventures aren’t as useless and meaningless as the random quests in Evolution. There are actual stakes now.
A nice improvement, imho, is that some of the issues I had with previous titles, are resolved. Although I can relate to some of the issues others have mentioned in their reviews, I’m still pleased to note there is far less teen angst nor cringy teen awkwardness, Riley is far less bitchy, Eliza is less whiny, and everyone is less annoying overall. Plus, I enjoyed the new minor character, Westley. In short, improved writing.
I disagree with some reviewers that the fact that a big chunk of the story is conveyed through flashbacks, is a spoiler. It is not. Although I must say that to me, from the beginning it was very clear (and thus, a predictable plot point), that things would not end there; but because I could not predict the details, I was still interested in following the story. And was pleasantly surprised and entertained by how everything was resolved in the end.
For the people that read the other Awaken Online trilogy: Finn and Jason are both in this book, the author knitting those two story arcs deftly together, with the emphasis still on Jason of course. I haven’t read that other trilogy myself, and I can safely say that you don’t have to, in order to read Hellion. The author provides enough context to be able to follow along with Finn’s character without having read his origin story.
All in all, I’m very happy with the renewed quality of this title. I hope the author keeps this up, then I won’t hesitate to purchase the next title.