*Spoilers Follow*
This series took a bit to grow on me. The premise of events taking place both in the real world and a VR sim MMORPG was a different take. I really got into it, as the pacing and tension were well done. The characters weren’t exactly deep, but mostly likeable enough. The previous book was probably the strongest, at least to me. But now the series has run out of steam, with this volume falling completely flat at the end. Which is really too bad.
The best part (and where it gets its stars from me) involved Haley’s struggle with her impending real world death from a fatal autoimmune disease. The entire book could have easily been about how, or even if, Haley’s consciousness / “soul” could transfer into the virtual world, with all the ethical and scientific baggage that entails. Instead, the most interesting part of the entire story is little more than a sideplot, with her actual soul transfer super easy, barely an inconvenience. The other players have some decent buildup from previous volumes, but don’t really have much to do in this one. And sadly, the characters of Stonehaven are just not interesting. Seriously, I couldn’t care less about any of them. They feel like single-purpose NPCs, which I know defeats the whole premise. The dwarves are especially annoying, cliched stereotypes. You know what I’m talking about: Scottish accents (okay, that’s true in all fantasy these days), hit things with hammers, obsess about beards, get drunk and act stupid. They’re basically obnoxious frat boys / girls. I honestly felt nothing anytime one of them was at risk of getting killed, and kind of wish they’d all snuffed it.
And speaking of super easy fixes, the defeat of the unstoppable demon army in a one-shot that involved Devin sitting in a stone chair was really anticlimactic. And now, their nemeses for the next book go from an unstoppable demon horde to toxic gamers, who are only introduced sporadically in this book … seriously? Every scene they are in is SO ANNOYING!!! They’re cardboard stereotypes with zero depth and no agenda other than being obnoxious jerks. Sure, at the end, they and the NPCs of Stonehaven have been warped somewhere unknown, with Devin and company having to save them in the next book. But honestly, I just don’t care. Nils, the toxic player leader, is so obnoxious, I refuse to read a book with him as the antagonist. His traitor-in-waiting, Ashley, isn’t any better. Had this story focused on Devin et al trying to save Haley’s spirit before she dies, with the final book them all battling the demon horde, would have been fantastic. Boring NPCs being rescued from toxic games (if, indeed that is the entire plot of the next book), just doesn’t interest me at all.
Sadly, while I enjoyed the previous books, think Carrie Summers is a very talented writer, and the performances from Soundbooth Theatre are excellent (hence the performance 5 stars), the series for me ends here.