I've read a LOT of Eric's work. I liked a LOT of his work. I do not like this one at all. It has all of the worst habits of Eric's.
I've read all of bad guys, most of good guys, and this book had every chance to be a fresh start.
For me, it was not only NOT a fresh start, but there are a TON of problems with it. I'll keep spoiler free as far as plot.
- The pacing is so incredibly poor to the point that Eric will go on pointless and completely mindless tangents about nothing at all for no reason (not even relevant thoughts like his usual ones), which has always been a thing - but now the writer decided to just make that a feature of the main character. Not only that, but the sheer amount of introspection over the most ridiculous things makes it feel like you're watching a person walking to the bathroom, picking up a toothbrush, and thinking about whether or not he wants to brush his teeth. By the time ANYTHING happens, it was a slog to get there, and a slog during and after.
- Horrible main character understanding. Main character is supposed to be smart, yet in this book he never, NEVER does anything even remotely indicative of even the smallest amount of intelligence. He's "a ladies man" who stutters and can't speak well to anyone. Brother is simple, only had a few things about him as well as simple gifts, yet does and says things directly against his personality or forgetting to use skills that are IMPOSSIBLE to forget.
- Useless characters around him. The only potentially interesting person takes off, the people the brothers work with are reluctant to help, and as ALWAYS in these books, literally no one is likeable or likes the main character. No one matters. If anyone in this book died, it wouldn't mean a thing - not just emotionally but there'd be 0 impact. No one has substance.
- General plot emptiness. Their "quest" is ENTIRELY just "Well.... Yeah I guess we're doing this now. Oh, no it's cool we like the idea so sure I guess." No passion in ANY capacity from anyone about literally anything. It took until THE END of the book for the MC to say he liked what his job was.
- Absolutely dreadful ending. I can't give spoilers because I couldn't. The book stops IN THE MIDDLE OF THE FIRST REAL MISSION. Not even the middle. It's such a short boot, that just stopping where it did was horrendous. When I checked how much longer I had left in the story and saw 7 minutes remaining I was shocked. That's it?
In the end there's little to say that's good. The dialogue, the thought processes, the story, the progression, the characters, the magic usage, the ending, all of it was bad.