I honestly don't know what to think. On the one hand, I'm expecting a blow-out bash and an end to the whole series because, let's face, nothing else has come out since 2009. Instead, I come to realize that the only real main character in the series is Borenson.

Yeah, the guy who lost his walnuts. Got stripped of all his powers. Repeatedly. The one who fell for a glamour, the one who got distanced from his family, the one who was repeatedly shat upon throughout the series.

Don't get me wrong. If the story, or rather, ALL the stories are about him, rather than him just being a solid but minor thread of plot throughout the series, then he gets one hell of a send-off.

Sort of.

Or rather... scratch that. This is no end to any book. It's fine as an average fantasy title as long as I don't prop it up against the ongoing story of the new nightmare presented in the last four books.

But as an end to the full nightmare besetting humanity and all the multiple worlds? THERE IS NO END.

Maybe there's a slight, hasty write-off. A half-hearted nod that makes us think that this whole series is not what we think it is... or what it should have been.

But let's face it: the fourth book gave us the full payoff in action and heroic action and enemies dying. A small fraction of what is needed, assuming that was the author's goal, occurs in this one.

Borenson goes wild. Great. Fun, even. But the end is not so much a plot hole as a plot chasm.

What do I think would fix this?

No less than two more books, at least one Hail Mary, and at least two requisite Deus Ex Machinas. At the very least, I expected a real payoff in the form of the complete and utter defeat of the enemy, not just a northern subsidiary.

Hmmm. *grumble grumble* I was invested enough to read the whole thing. It's not like I didn't have fun. *sigh* ( )