It sits at a lovely price and is 3 books in one. The Universe RinoZ has created is legitimately interesting to hear about and learn about, the monsters and people hold my attention throughout the entire book. The individuals are fun and loveable, the VAs do a FANTASTIC job.
But why the 3 stars?
SPOILERS: The books are genuinely good, up until the finale… A 2-3 hour battle, excellently done, the tension and danger is palpable with legitimate stakes, the battle between Anthony and Gharolosh is genuinely epic. We learn more about Gharolosh and how tormented she is, how she’s being mentally manipulated by the Lizard Wizard, how Anthony doesn’t approve of her actions (fair enough) but seems to feel a little bad for her, even reaching out to her and learning about her. Yes it’s a distraction to keep her from fighting his mental attack but Anthony, throughout the books, keeps saying he doesn’t care for humans, how he’d be better off without them, how he wouldn’t mind if they buggered off, etc etc, yet every interaction with them he’s not hostile to those he knows hates him, to outright trying to make sure they’re OK. Throughout the books it felt like he was secretly still at least a little human, still holding on to that last remnant of his humanity. With that in mind the end of the fight with Gharolosh makes little to no sense, killing her? Yes that’s fair. Doing it out of revenge because she killed Grant? Also fair. But being petty and cutting Gharolosh off before she can at least be remembered as human one last time? Then immediately going to a joke? Sure this whole series is generally comedy, but it HAS serious moments, it had a PERFECT ending up until the last 10 minutes.