This book is more of a boilerplate progression episode and fails to capture the superior quality of other books in this series.
This is the first book in the series that, to me, felt more like a book from any other series. It felt less intimate. I don’t mean that in any erotic manner, but in the close connection with the MC readers feel with the other books in this series. This, coupled with numerous contextual issues in the story as well as a giant plot hole, are why I’ve rated this the worst book in the series thus far.
What we have is a system quest to conquer some lands to establish a new nation, get land, experience, and juicy rewards. On the surface this makes perfect sense for most of the people involved to want to be apart of this quest. For the average troops, its potential for their own land in a new country ideally free of the corruption and gatekeeping of the Empire. They also get rewards and experience. However, what about the ones that died? Their families get nothing? Seems like a HUGE gamble for the average grunt. For the elites, they have less fear of dying, thanks to their strength, and the same other benefits, just to a higher degree of rewards.
But why does Victor, MC, care? I have never once understood any context for why he wants to get involved in this from the beginning. I have never understood why it is that he’s given such a position of authority, in the context of the story. I say that because when it’s offered to him, he’s mid second tier. He’s a nobody who can certainly punch up two or three tiers, but barely. He brings nothing to the table at the beginning other than that, no allies, no wealth, no armies, nothing. But of course, by the time we get to the quest, he’s tier five and definitely the most powerful member of the expedition, how convenient because otherwise they would have all died.
The foundations for this quest make no sense. Added to the context issues for why these elites involved him when they did, the other issue is why does he care? Even in this book, he’s clearly not interested in hanging around after it’s over, so doesn’t care about the land really. Why is he involved at all? It’s never made clear, much like we’ve still yet to establish the source for MC’s rage affinity.
Next issue, where is the context in this story for how Victor is such a natural leader and tactician? It would have made way more sense for him to learn to lead as he went, to make mistakes and then overcome his deficiencies instead of just making all the right decisions from the beginning. They win literally every battle and engagement with the enemy forces. I know he falls for a trap at the end of the book, but turning that around, thanks to a plot device, ends the quest in success. With the losses they took due to his “mistake”, wouldn’t those still have been significantly less than assaulting each prepared citadel on the mountain all the way to the top? So it wasn’t a mistake really.
Wouldn’t the undead forces establishing a foothold in this world create a problem for the other nations and races? So wouldn’t it make sense for them to be part of this quest? To me the empire meddling because of the fear of rebellion or whatever or even of a new nation on their borders makes way less sense than trying to stop anyone attempting to complete the quest because to fail means forces from another world establish a foothold.
And here is my biggest complaint, a GIANT plot hole. I don’t understand how it is the undead got to these lands and established themselves in defensive positions BEFORE the conquest expedition. I’ve been saying quest, but really they only have a writ of conquest, which isn’t activated and didn’t trigger an actual system quest until they crossed into the contested territory. What if their army was stopped or disbanded before they did so? Then how is it another world’s force is already in place? That doesn’t make any sense whatsoever.
I HATED that the only character to die in the entire episode was the one guy who shouldn’t have. And he didn’t even die on page. I can’t remember his name, but it’s the disgraced noble MC met in the first book who mentored him in the slave pits. The man who took revenge, righteous revenge, on some evildoers and lost everything for it. When MC bought his freedom, he made him a tribune, the commander of the Ninth Cohort. This man is the perfect kind of noble to have in this new nation, and the author just killed him off, off page mind you. The worst part though is MC just sadly shrugs it off. At a minimum it should be used to fuel his rage.
This lack of killing of characters is becoming a burden on this series. I feel like the Guts-style nature of a berserker story deserves a darker tone, not only to keep feeding the rage of the MC, but also because it’s just better storytelling. But the author never kills off anyone after the first book. I think it would have been perfect for Vala to die in this book for not only the impetus to leave the planet, but to feed the rage anew. THAT, coupled with the injustices of the people used as livestock, should be the reason why Victor and his gang invade Dark Ember, not to save the soul of some side character from book 2. I don’t even remember her name, that’s possibly because all the women’s names sound the same in this series, but mostly because I couldn’t care less about this character. Kill off these people, not the one side character worthy of being in this story.
Finally, I’m annoyed at the relationship drama. Tired of rehashing the same drama over and over again. I’m also tired of rehashing the “I’m responsible for every death.” spiral MC always goes in only to be convinced he’s wrong every time. That’s getting old.
I will thank the author for finally adding a male side character who apparently will be a party member moving forward. Finally. Was that so hard?
Overall, I still think the fundamentals of this series are very strong in relation to the rest of the genre, but the execution in this book is sloppy and falls short of the original quality of the other books in this series. Contextual errors, a giant plot hole, and the general tropey unfolding of the plot (with a plot device even), are why I’ve rated this the least favorite book of mine in the series so far.