A good book for the most part, but the ending seemed a little rushed and unfinished - Having read a few books now by this author, I get the impression that he doesn't really know how to finish a story, how to bring it to an ending. You get a great beginning and middle, but towards the end it seems to switch to relying on deus ex machina, and cutting out anything he can't explain and then jumping to a happy ever after epilogue.
I have to say that I was happy with most of the endings everyone got, especially after two (or in some cases five) books following their stories.
Carson and Michael - I was glad that their epilogue was only a couple of lines, because it made sense. We always knew that as long as they had each other, and that Arnie and Scout were safe, then they were always going to be alright no matter what.
I loved Erika and Jocko's ending. I thought it was sweet and a little goofy, with Erika falling in love and marrying someone, and having a family - something that she couldn't want when we met her, but that proved to be what she was best at building. She was made without a family and designed to be the perfect obedient wife, but thanks to Jocko and the other people she met, she became more than what she was made to be, she became human. Jocko also got his happy ending - nobody beating him with sticks, or chasing him away, or trying to kill him. He gets to be himself, with his new family, and sure, why not give him his own kids TV show where he can jump and dance and play all the time? Considering some of the other stuff that happens in this book, that's certainly not the most farfetched, although it does feel like it since we spent the last four books being told how hideous and off-putting Jocko is.
I'm glad Travis and his mum were okay, although no explanation for how or why Grace wasn't affected by the brain probe the same way as the others. Other authors would have killed Grace off, or had her become one of the mindless brain-dead slaves, which would have added a new twist of the knife, but this did make me feel like the author had her be fine because they didn't want to make the audience read something so painful - which is odd considering how many people we've seen die over this series.
Nummy and Mr Lyss's ending was just... odd. I'm glad Nummy got a happy ending because he absolutely deserved it, and Lyss was a prick, but not as bad as he could have been, but the fact that this angry, selfish drifter who steals and cheats and lies and overall doesn't care about anyone else would then essentially adopt Nummy - a special needs adult - and change his entire life to take care of him? It just goes against everything we've learned about Lyss over the past two books. The lottery win was just ridiculous on top of everything else, and I don't even want to think about it because it's so goddamn stupid.
I'm mostly annoyed at Deucalion's ending. I still can't even tell if he actively chose to kill Victor or if some 'higher power' decided for him. Deucalion deserved to be the one to kill Victor, after the centuries of pain he endured because of that man, but it felt a little like he was robbed of it, as though destiny was the one who got the final blow. And then just vanishing into light? We don't hear if he found peace, if he had a soul that reached heaven, if the parts of him that tried to be good were redeemed? It makes me mad the more I think about it, because if anyone deserved a happy ending, it was Deucalion, and just something to say that he's happy wherever he went would have been nice.
The main part of the book was good - it had me tense and on edge, and it felt like a zombie or alien movie, constantly worrying that a builder was about to consume someone. It felt apocalyptic and desperate and like you were constantly looking over your shoulder to wonder if the person approaching was a replicant or builder who would continue their war against humanity. Again, the deus ex machina of it all with the builders going wrong, did dampen the effect from the middle onwards, but it was good enough to keep me going until the end just to see who would or wouldn't make it.
What I really wanted to read about was the cold war scientist who hid himself in an abandoned bunker for 30+ years slowly going mad and turning it into a temple of madness, until Victor showed up and took over the facility and he watched them until he could lure two replicants down and try to force them to join his one-man cult, before Victor killed him - that's a hell of a fucking story right there but we get one paragraph about it? Forget the novel themes about humanity and the desire to survive and creating community, I want to read about the guy working in a super secret government bunker who said he was going on vacation and then hid in the basement of said bunker for 30 years!
Overall, a distinctly average offering from this author, with moments of pure genius sprinkled in. Disappointing after investing in the series for 5 books, and I probably won't be in a hurry to read anything by this author again anytime soon, but I am willing to give his work another go at some point.