I was fifty-fifty about this series after the first book but then I found that most people consume the audiobook and decided to give that a go. My reading experience was dramatically improved, the narration was fun and witty; characters that had previously blended together felt distinct and animated; even the game narration itself had a more palatable and interesting character. The audiobook is fantastically executed and I cannot overstate how incredible Jeff Hayes is in this rendition.
So is the quality of the audiobook the main reason it is more palatable than reading this yourself? No. It is part of it but I think the main reason is that when you read it yourself, you realise it simply is not worth the amount of effort you are putting in. I am happy to have this on in the background but when I have a chance to put all of my energy towards something, I’d simply rather choose a more compelling activity or book. In this lies the success of this series. It is not fantastic, not even close. But it is good enough to have on in the background and not care if you miss a few sentences here and there, similar to watching an easy movie while doing something else.
If you have read the first book there is little else that will surprise you here. It’s largely more of the same, making this even more tiring. Most of the hooks that were started in the first book still have not been resolved. The combat is mundane, Carl just runs around blowing things up and donut shoots magic missiles. The story is run-of-the-mill and does not stray much from anything you have read before. I will say the intergalactic conflict and the position of the game and its player on the political stage are interesting and largely what kept me going. I want to know more about the political side of things, how things are going to be resolved and how the crawlers are going to play a part in it; the more I read however, the more I realise that I do not think I will get a satisfying resolution to most of the interesting plot points unless I read more of these books, and there are so many.
It sounds like I hate this book but I truly don’t: I think it is okay. It does not excel in terms of story, that’s largely full of tired tropes and the parts that are intriguing never get wrapped in; the characters are one-dimensional and any attempt to make them any more than that falls flat, whether this is due to a lack of writing talent or is a by-product of the story itself I’m not sure; the humour feels like Dinniman went to every high-school lavatory in the world and noted down everything written on the walls; and that’s why I think it’s own three stars.
After the last book I thought it was likely I would read the next one sometime soon, after this one I am not so sure, let’s see.