Sarah gave us a real cliffhanger this time, and I’m not sure how I feel about it. Beyond that, I was very happy with this latest installment in the series.
In the early books of this series, there was time travel, but then there would be a book without it, while we got to know how the characters were adjusting to life in the Middle Ages. Very quickly, the format shifted and there was time travel in every book. It was starting to feel like a revolving door, and a bit formulaic. Sarah has definitely forgone the formula this time, which I am quite happy about.
Nearly everyone we’ve met before is in this book, the exceptions being David’s parents and Anna and a Math. Someone had to stay behind in England. But that made for a large cast of characters with lots of moving parts in this book. You are assumed to know the relationships and the roles each person plays. Thankfully, I did a full series reread prior to starting Unbroken, which I think helped me not get lost or confused. I can see how this one might be hard to follow if I hadn’t done that.
But in the end, this book is more plot driven then some of the other After Cilmeri books. It’s really a heist novel at its core, which is a fun change. There was plenty going on that a secondary plot in “Avalon” would have been too distracting.
I complained in my review of Refuge, that it spent too much time in the modern world. Clearly, I prefer historical fiction to the modern spy novel that Refuge felt like to me. Based on how Unbroken ended, I’m a little nervous the next book will be like that again, but we shall see. That nervousness certainly won’t keep me from reading David’s next adventure.