I’ll be blunt: This is in my eyes the weakest AB in the ELLC series. That said, I enjoyed it immensely. The twists, turns, WTF’s and oddness come full blown here.
Character Development: Greatly done.
Boxxy being the walking personification of Murphy’s Law: Done so smoothly that it is more fluid than the ocean.
The Demon Squad being their own flavor of WTF: Each one has differences and is given proper credence.
The other sides’ reaction: The WTF is perfectly shown and meshes so well that it is a joy. Goroth (sp, Sorry my reading devices are charging and I don’t want to deal with Windows’ version of Kindle software to get the right spelling) was a joy to see in this book.
The main reason I say that this book is the Weakest of the Series is the fact that there is no really jarring event in it that makes everyone go “What in the Name of Theresa’s T**s” in reaction.
Book 1 had the Calamity
Book 2 had the Escape from the Griffins
Book 3 had the Ice-Apocalypse.
Book 4 had the Massacre at Fort Yeamin (Sp, same as above)
Book 5 had the Demon Overlord smackdown
Book 6 had the Institute Raid AFTER Boxxy’s fall.
Book 7 had….nothing that really compared to what came before.
Great Transition book, great for development, great for laughs (My main reason for getting EVERY book in the series) but it didn’t have an event that made everyone sit up and count their fingers and toes like the others before it.
Jeff Hays and his crew went so far on this story that it was spectacular to listen to.
Neven Iliev wrote a great story that delivered 90% of what I expected from his Insane Pen to deliver. If it weren’t for the fact that I know what Book 8 holds, the lack of a “OMG WTUFF” moment would have made this a title I might of skipped listening to.
BUUUT, I know what is coming and know that some of the info that is in THIS book is needed for Book 8. So I will likely still listen to it when I do my run-thru for when Book 8 is getting prepped for release and will enjoy it. (I should also mention that I re-downloaded Book 8 onto my phone to reread it as soon as I finished the AB, can’t wait for that one to get an audio version.)
To sum it up:
The other 6 books have massive Sunday Night Dinner Sections that lay the foundation for what is coming next. This entry is more akin to the light breakfast on Thanksgiving Day, a meal to keep the cravings down in anticipation for the truly massive feast that is to come.
(FYI: Neven & Jeff, I’d love to have my Massive Audiobook feast sometime this year if possible. A guy can hope, can’t he? Thanks for what wonders you guys and gals do.)