This book ends in a cliff hanger. While I have been enjoying this series the plot line is venturing into the ‘too hard to suspend my disbelief’ direction. The Awaken Online game has only been ‘live’ for a week and a bit and yet the plot is entwined with an in game history that goes back hundreds of years as if the two have developed together.

I am also losing sympathy for the main character, Finn. He professes to be suffering many ills from love and so he can have more time with his (dead) wife yet his live daughter has to play a video game with him to be noticed and we hear nothing of his other children. Meantime he has bits of him dropping off everywhere and I feel sad for the wife who, if and when she spawns into the game, will take one look at him and probably hurl.

Also, no one takes bathroom breaks.