I don’t write many reviews but I just couldn’t keep quiet about this one. Possible spoilers ahead but I’ll keep it vague.
The first trilogy was great! Really enjoyed the story and the characters. This one? F- all of the characters. The main characters, rinn and Madeline, absolute morons. Complete blind buffoons. Their father, started out much better but by the end was no better than they were. Damned near every character mad the wrong decision. No just decisions I wouldn’t make in their position but just stupid nonsense decisions. There was more than one point in the book where I literally yelled at the characters “what the f- are you doing you dumb b***h?!?”. Madeleine had absolutely no right to progress as far as she did. She treated everyone as if they were mindless clods and she was the shining golden god to save them all, all because she was a little mechanically inclined. She SHOULD have been beaten half to death when she destroyed the first gate. Arafan should have done something.. anything other than immediately capitulating to her and her mad whims. And consequences? What consequence?? There was almost no repercussions for what this mass murdering bint did. She got more people killed than could be counted and her remorse for the deaths was fleeting to nonexistent. By the last few hours I was simply listening out of spite hoping that everyone would kill eachother off and we’d watch as the three worlds were spared the unfortunate event of any of them reproducing. I’m sorry but I can’t recommend this book. It creates some interesting possibilities but doesn’t follow up with a single one of them. It would have been better to follow Brannis as he and Juliana explored the other twelve worlds getting into and out of danger in civilizations alien to them. But no. We get a hint, the la croix of stories about their possible adventures before it’s completely forgotten for the mud brains we were left to deal with.