It’s begining to get harder and harder to introduce these books. Part of the problem is that they are big enough on their own, and most people who will stop off at this site will have known them for some time. The TV show certain is helping them get notoriety, but this series all on its own seems to get a lot of shelf space at your local book seller. I don’t feel like I have to say all that much in the way of introduction.
For the most part I remain glad to have stuck with this series for as long as I have. However, this particular installment was a let down. That, however, isn’t terribly shocking. The previous book was pretty climactic, and it raised the bar in a way that was going to be pretty hard to beat. Going into it I had pretty high hopes that whatever was going to happen was pretty epic, if for no other reason than the fact that it has to ride the coat tails of the previous book. But that of course didn’t happen, and this book feels like a slog for it. This is why you really don’t ever see the monster till towards the end of most horror movies. If you give it all up too soon, well then what are you going to give later?
The big, cataclysmic event in the previous book masked a pretty big missing detail. The previous book never once went into anything with the aliens and the ruins of their civilization in our solar system and through the gate. A cataclysmic event could cause us to put that aside. However, not forever, and although this story takes place pretty immediately after the previous one, it didn’t for us the reader and the author should have known that. A greater sense of brooding menace would have gone a long way, and done much to keep us invested in what the story was (at least initially) about. There was just enough of those elements in this story for us to sleep safely with the promise that there will certainly be more in the coming books, but the question now seems to be whether or not we will get any in the next one, or if they will push it back further. Personally, I am starting to feel like i don’t give too much of a damn about the story line they are on now.
I think that unfortunately the nicest thing I can say about this piece is that for the first time in the series I actually understand the relation of the book’s title and content. Frankly, I still don’t think the title is any good (I didn’t think any of them were), but this one at least made some kind of sense in relation to the story.
Honestly, even as I write this I’ve forgotten a large chunk of this book.
Failures in Polymathy 