This one was a let down with a whole bunch of both Deus Ex Machina to get out of tight spots but leaving other spots unresolved and simply forgotten. Then ending it as a cliffhanger with all sorts of outcomes, quests, levels, and bonus boxes unresolved not even listing them let alone opening them. Instead, last half hour is rewinding another character’s actions at the start of the first book instead of finishing the level story. It’s like the book was written without even an outline beyond “must add another book to the series” and just banged it out like this review.

I wanted to like it, and hoped it would get better, but it just kept going off track with some repeatedly blatantly ignorant character decisions after the same characters were demonstrably extremely perceptive and clever earlier both in this book and in previous books of the series. I felt like Preppitente (sp?) acts while listening, and I’m dumb to start with.

Also heavy (non ‘fun’) overly melodramatic peril in this and the previous book compared to earlier volumes. I should have simply stopped after the first free ones. But those were actually good. Since book 4, they’ve gotten slightly more slap dash.

Performance, on the other hand, was mostly great, except for passages from creatures/gods where they distort so much that it’s unintelligible as to what is being said. Otherwise great, I like the “please wait” elevator music. So the studio is fine, the writer started off great and got me to waste a few credits for these last few – once bitten twice shy.