I purchased and pledged both the digital ebook and the hard copy paperback through Kickstarter.
When I first read "Arena Mode", the first book in this unique superhero battle royal novel, I was excited. "Arena Mode" was a quick and fun read with filled with ridiculous deaths, exaggerated fighting and an amazing supporting cast of super powered characters. As a sequel however, I would come to expect a lot more now that the groundwork has been laid out. There was much left unsaid about the world-building, the urban culture and basically what else is going on in the world other than this maddening brawl. There were hints of the underbelly of the city of New York called "The Fridge", hints of organized crimes or a black market, hints of other bigger events happening in the world in daily life and hints of Gavin, (the best friend of Matthew Moxon, the main character) being something more than what he is. Sadly all of this was left unexplored in Blake Northcott's sequel, "Assault or Attrition".
To say that I was underwhelmed by this most recent book in the "Arena Mode" series was an understatement. I really did expect so much more, hoping that the story would branch out from this small little perspective of a superhero brawl and become more than what it previously was. We again follow the main character, Matthew Moxon, current winner of "The Arena" and now a multimillionaire. Now he faces the many consequences of surviving the games. We follow Matthew as he explores his newfound riches, makes old and new enemies and eventually ends up in a similar superhero brawl setting that he barely survived the last time. Basically, it was a lot of the same with none of the charm.
The problems with this book reminds me of many movie sequels which many would claim to be "the curse of sequels", in which the creators just throw in more of what people liked in the previous successful movie except with more explosions. This book really had that feel of such a lukewarm sequel. There were a lot of coincidences, a lot of ridiculous deaths and a lot of instances that were told instead of shown with a kind of depressing tone to it that it just took all of the fun out of what I was reading. I really couldn't feel attached to anyone, not even characters that were previously my favorites. There was also a lot of drama that had me rolling my eyes and reminds me of either Young Adult (YA) angst or shallow "redshirt-type" deaths and characters (yes, this is a Star Trek reference).
All in all, even if the sequel "Assault or Attrition" was a disappointment that could not reflect what made the first book successful to me, it was still a fast-paced read and could still be called a popcorn book. It was interesting to see what Matthew would do next and some of the twists this book had, although predictable, was enjoyable. At the end there was a looming "To Be Continued...", which probably means there is at least one more book of the series in the works. I'm not sure if I'll continue to read more of this series but I can at least say I'll keep an eye out for it.