Book four was definitely a three star. The plot was clarified when the situation with “dieties” was explained, and a little hope added, however the cliche absolute evil winning with the protagonist and company promised absolute impotence is so stupid and boring it makes me concerned that I already bought the whole series as currently released. If the following books follow that bad of a pattern I will feel regret at having bought them.
I am not a fan of “cliffhangers” because they are usually poorly written. Shirtaloon is a writer that can do a cliffhanger well. This book four ends with a cliffhanger that doesn’t make me want to read the next book, but instead makes me wonder if I should switch to a different series and remove this double feature from my favorites.
Know this: This double feature is well written with Arthur achieving wonderful things, even finding someone he may marry someday, but ends in book four like TurtleMe lost their grasp on the story and compensated by trying to make it more exciting. It ends with little cohesion, unresolvable confusion, and with the only reason one wouldn’t want to immediately throw it in the trash being that the series was previously written well and most stories like this have an inevitable positive resolution that might, may be worth getting to. Read/listen with the certain expectation that it does not end well and may leave you unsatisfied.