Mediocrity should be the title of this series. But I don’t know if that’s too cruel. Can Mehhh [shrugs] be a title? This latest entry in the Unbound series continues to do poorly what this series has always done poorly, and falters on the one thing it did well.
This book took me a couple weeks to finish. I think I picked it up the day it came out, but read three full books and started another while picking at this one. I didn’t really catch a good reading pace until this book entered its climatic set piece act. Before that, the politicking and groundwork for the final act dragged and could not consistently hold my attention. And that is because, for me, the plot of this series has always been its biggest weak spot, but not by much. It’s closely followed by its flat, trope characters.
Speaking for myself, that alone isn’t a reason to not read a series. Power fantasy is pulp fiction. It’s not meant to be literature, just a fun way to pass the time, and enjoy the vicarious payoffs of good triumphing over evil. In fact, I think plot is probably the least important factor in writing a good progression series, as the reason we read them is for the progression and the payoffs of that progress we invest in as readers.
The plot of this series is as generic as it gets. Youthful Earth male pulled into an alternate reality or different world. He enters a world where magic is suppressed by some alliance of evil deities and their earth-bound counterpart. Yet some cataclysm is coming and the world is not prepared. Thankfully, our MC is the key to success against this apocalypse. But he must unite others of his kind, find allies, and overcome the deities’ minions first.
Again, that alone isn’t a deal killer. The ways other authors in this genre set their generic plot series above others is by focusing on those other aspects of progression as a genre that prop up this genre. Those are characters, magic system, world building, combat, and progression.
One of this series’ positives is the pace of progression. Unlike some series, like DOTF spending eight books in one of the first level grades, this series has a consistent and concise pace of leveling through the grades it establishes. Add to that, is that this series has a clear ending, and that is coming soon, perhaps with the next book. That’s a large plus to me, as again some other popular series in this genre fall into a snail’s pace of progression, both of magical level and of plot, to the point where there’s no ending in sight.
However, the magic system and world building of this series is as generic as the plot, so can’t say it adds anything to the series at all.
But in a close second to plot for worst aspect of this series is its characters. All the characters of this series are especially flat, even for this genre. Felix is a total good guy. Willing to do anything for anyone. He never makes a bad decision or does something wrong. As for all the side characters, they can all be easily defined in a short paragraph each. But they’re all equally as good.
I understand this good versus bad is a cliche of power fantasy, but that doesn’t mean a little nuance doesn’t make for a more relatable and satisfying read. The bad guys are equally bad. They are so cliche, it makes we wonder if this is satire. I mean the dialogue from the big bad at the end of this book is just so utterly ridiculous it undermines the world building and plot.
Before this point, this big bad character was always presented as someone trying to prepare the world for the coming cataclysm, but in a flawed way. And perhaps even being played by the deities themselves, which is a reason for the MC to get involved. But this big bad proves herself to be sadistic, cruel and over-the-top cliche villain. I don’t understand how a person with that kind of character leads the most organized and powerful nation on this world for literally centuries.
For the last aspect I’ll discuss, combat, I have always rated this highly in this series. For all its other faults, it has done combat well. There’s lots of it, and it’s woven interestingly with progression to feel like a rewarding enough payoff to make the series worth a read. And though the first 2/3rds of this book is generally lacking, the setup and first paces of the final act really felt like the author was doing what he did best. A really cool plan to conquer this big bad’s city and take the big bad out to allow the good guys to then prepare for the cataclysm in the next book.
This is what we want to see as an audience in this series. We’ve invested in the progression to this point, we want to see the fruits of that. But how is it that so many authors undermine this? Plot devices and contrivances, that’s how. And for the first time in this series, our author plays that card.
What do I mean by that? Sure things don’t always go to plan, in fact that’s a notorious rule for combat in this world. I have no problem with the trap being set by the big bad. I have a problem everything that comes during and after it. If the MC can’t find the energy to defend his girlfriend right after he’s freed, it’s not because of some aspect of the story that established that, it’s because that’s the way the author wants the climax to play out. Because MC literally fights the big bad on his own for the next 5-10% of the book. That’s a contrivance. He wins, not by reaping the culmination of his progression, but by a plot device he absorbs… which of course doesn’t seem to help him do anything but keep pace. And everything he does is easily shrugged off by the big bad… until it isn’t and he one-shot wins by kicking his sword into her chest…. What even is that?
That’s not a payoff. That’s cheap. The entire fight was cheaply set up, cheaply dragged out, and cheaply ended. Why can’t he win as a consequence of one or more of: tactics, strategy, and his progression? As a consequence of his arc as a character not just because the author reached his word count and just ends it with kicking a sword?
Other big mistakes in this book: It’s been almost a year since the last book in this series, that alone says this book was trouble, so why isn’t there a recap chapter? I barely remember what series this is, and the author just drops us in with no context. The semi-cliffhanger at the end is a travesty. No one likes cliffhangers at the end of books in this genre. We hate them.
The author is clearly setting up for the final arc of this series, that’s fine as I’ve said above. But the author gave us no time to revel in THIS victory. This is my message to any author writing in this genre, the reason anyone at all reads power fantasy is for payoffs. There’s other ways to introduce a semi-cliffhanger into the end of your book without bulldozing from the climax of the story straight into it. We can pause and have a breath and enjoy the victory, and then in the epilogue or whatever, we can stir the pot for the next book.
I don’t know, it’s amazing to me how many authors in this genre genuinely don’t seem to understand why people read it. This author has repeatedly shown he’s average at best, but this book might have sealed the series for me as being mediocre.
With this book, I don’t feel comfortable keeping this series on my favorites list on my profile, even if it was dead last. I feel that those series should be ones I’d actively recommend to anyone interested in this genre, and just don’t feel the overall breadth of this series fits that bill anymore.