wow Alloy of Law sucks. Spoilers alert in case

[Honorless]

17 hours ago, Ookla the Frustrated said:

I would rather read AoL than ES

*horrified gasp*

[Sp00ks]

You know, I finished Hero of Ages a couple weeks ago, and was REALLY expecting to not like Alloy of Law, since I typically don't like modern settings with magic. I even specifically searched up people who didn't like Alloy specifically to see reinforce this idea. 

But I actually really liked Alloy, Shadows, and Bands. I think I just really dig the cowboy aesthetic of Wax and Wayne. Still not excited about era 3 though. And, there are some "Sanderson-isms" that I dislike in many of his works. Still, I was pleasantly surprised at how much I like Alloy. Hope you push through and you end up liking era two more OP

[Frustration]

10 minutes ago, Sp00ks said:

"Sanderson-isms"

I don't know that I've ever heard that term before, could you explain it?

[Sp00ks]

54 minutes ago, Ookla the Frustrated said:

I don't know that I've ever heard that term before, could you explain it?

It's sorta hard to explain. Some of the ways he paces and goes about specific scenes is a little "off" to me I guess. Like, totally subjective, but I feel he gets a little over excited during climactic magical fights, and it comes across a little weird to me? End of Words of Radiants, end of Bands of Mourning, they just sorta rub me the wrong way slightly.

Plus when he gets into cosmere crossover stuff it is just... Idk, I don't like it. The Ire stuff in secret history just felt really forced and unnatural to the story. 

There's other stuff, but again, it's all just my specific tastes

[StanLemon]

2 hours ago, Sp00ks said:

It's sorta hard to explain. Some of the ways he paces and goes about specific scenes is a little "off" to me I guess. Like, totally subjective, but I feel he gets a little over excited during climactic magical fights, and it comes across a little weird to me? End of Words of Radiants, end of Bands of Mourning, they just sorta rub me the wrong way slightly.

I agree pacing can sometimes feel like an issue with his books, but I can't understand the climactic magical fights one. That's almost every medium to high fantasy story ever that does those and at least to me they feel like big payouts.

2 hours ago, Sp00ks said:

Plus when he gets into cosmere crossover stuff it is just... Idk, I don't like it. The Ire stuff in secret history just felt really forced and unnatural to the story. 

That's the point of the Cosmere he's working towards is a giant crossover. Not doing that would be like if Marvel tried doing their Cinematic Universe without tying the stories together and lacking references to each other. At some point he has to reference the the other worlds. He's creating a progressive and evolving narrative of the whole Cosmere and the characters are learning they are part of a much bigger world.

2 hours ago, Sp00ks said:

There's other stuff, but again, it's all just my specific tastes

That's fair

[Inquisitor #5]

On 2021-12-14 at 5:54 PM, Ookla the Frustrated said:

I would rather read AoL than ES

I mean, same.

Emperor's Soul might be more interesting, but Alloy is more fun.

(And I have a huge pro-Misborn bias.)

 

¤_¤

[Sp00ks]

15 hours ago, StanLemon said:

I agree pacing can sometimes feel like an issue with his books, but I can't understand the climactic magical fights one. That's almost every medium to high fantasy story ever that does those and at least to me they feel like big payouts.

It's not that I dislike the magical fights, I just feel like his big end of book ones feel poorly written sometimes. This is very difficult for me to explain. I guess it's maybe that, often the climactic end of book fight happens AFTER the main character has finished their emotional arc for the book. Like again, WoR, the fight happens after that scene (not gonna put spoilers but you know the one) and the fight really just feels like "Wow Kaladin sure is epic now guys" rather than there being an actual emotional conflict that I care about. I LOVE the emotional payoffs, I dislike the fights that come after them. The end of the Final Empire and We'll of Ascension we're really good since the emotional payoffs were part of the fights at the end 

15 hours ago, StanLemon said:

That's the point of the Cosmere he's working towards is a giant crossover. Not doing that would be like if Marvel tried doing their Cinematic Universe without tying the stories together and lacking references to each other. At some point he has to reference the the other worlds. He's creating a progressive and evolving narrative of the whole Cosmere and the characters are learning they are part of a much bigger world.

I know it's the point and that they all need to eventually come together. That's not the problem. My issue with it is he often handles it pretty poorly, at least in my opinion. Sometimes, he handles it fine, I like the Ghost bloods since it's very gradually revealed. I really dislike things like the Ire where it just "happens" and feels extremely forced. There are other examples but these are the easiest.

[Tamriel Wolfsbaine]

Maybe this I am just a glutton for punishment but I wish more heroes died in these books.  As much as I love the heroes and would be sad seeing any of them die (Kels death was so epic I am actually sad that he is doing his cognitive shadow whatever... let me man have his epic exit and be happy for it).  I so wish for some red wedding scenes too but it is rough too.   

Sometimes plot armor is too thick and the heroes becoming ultra clever and finding that little trick to overcome the baddies that noone else has ever beat before is too much for me.  

All that said the way Miles gets defeated I thought was epic.  It makes me smile when I think about the fact that our main protagonists couldn't do it.  If one of them died I would have been sad but at the same time the victory would have felt oh so much better.  

Then again I always thought a cool movie would be shot from one persons point of view and then before the end of whatever conflict happens you see that character die... heck you don't even need to see the character die because as they die the credits start rolling.  Completely unresolved story and just the end.   It would be a totally rage inducing ending to a story but honestly to break up the endless plot armor I think it would be worth it.  

[Frustration]

1 hour ago, Tamriel Wolfsbaine said:

Maybe this I am just a glutton for punishment but I wish more heroes died in these books.  As much as I love the heroes and would be sad seeing any of them die (Kels death was so epic I am actually sad that he is doing his cognitive shadow whatever... let me man have his epic exit and be happy for it).  I so wish for some red wedding scenes too but it is rough too.   

Sometimes plot armor is too thick and the heroes becoming ultra clever and finding that little trick to overcome the baddies that noone else has ever beat before is too much for me.  

All that said the way Miles gets defeated I thought was epic.  It makes me smile when I think about the fact that our main protagonists couldn't do it.  If one of them died I would have been sad but at the same time the victory would have felt oh so much better.  

Then again I always thought a cool movie would be shot from one persons point of view and then before the end of whatever conflict happens you see that character die... heck you don't even need to see the character die because as they die the credits start rolling.  Completely unresolved story and just the end.   It would be a totally rage inducing ending to a story but honestly to break up the endless plot armor I think it would be worth it.  

THANK YOU!

Someone else understands!

[Szeth_Pancakes]

1 hour ago, Tamriel Wolfsbaine said:

Maybe this I am just a glutton for punishment but I wish more heroes died in these books.  As much as I love the heroes and would be sad seeing any of them die (Kels death was so epic I am actually sad that he is doing his cognitive shadow whatever... let me man have his epic exit and be happy for it).  I so wish for some red wedding scenes too but it is rough too.   

Sometimes plot armor is too thick and the heroes becoming ultra clever and finding that little trick to overcome the baddies that noone else has ever beat before is too much for me. 
 

You make some good points, but I’m not sure that’s what Era 2 is meant to be. It’s a big tone shift from Era 1 - while the latter was meant to be dark and serious, the former is meant to be (relatively) light - a fun, Sherlock Holmes-type deal. It isn’t meant to be as gritty and full of realism as other books are. I guess it’s a preference thing though. It’s perfectly okay to like one type of book over the other, but that doesn’t mean there are problems with either one.

[Tamriel Wolfsbaine]

7 hours ago, Szeth_Pancakes said:

You make some good points, but I’m not sure that’s what Era 2 is meant to be. It’s a big tone shift from Era 1 - while the latter was meant to be dark and serious, the former is meant to be (relatively) light - a fun, Sherlock Holmes-type deal. It isn’t meant to be as gritty and full of realism as other books are. I guess it’s a preference thing though. It’s perfectly okay to like one type of book over the other, but that doesn’t mean there are problems with either one.

I actually really enjoy the tone of Era 2 as well.  All of the kandra scenes are great and Wayne makes me smile all the time.  I love the steampunk feel. 

Spoiler

As stated in my original post I was so glad when the hero of the Miles arc ended up being not Wax or Wayne and instead the only metal that made things possible was "useless cadmium". 

But I will admit I have a huge bias towards scadrial.   I am in love with the magic system.  The kandra are some of my favorite monsters from any system as well... 

I just think certain aspects of the books fall a bit flat due to knowing our heroes are going to prevail.  Which is a fine thing.  But the heroes drawing on the mists or using bands that make them gods at the last minute every book is rough.  As terrible of a person Straff Venture was imagine all of that setup training a mistborn son and alienating everyone in your life for power... then to have a scrawny girl decide that if she can watch your supernaturally enhanced assassin (with a dang god metal) move his eyes then she can beat him in combat where he supposedly is able to see any move she makes seconds in advance.  

I just figure if we could have seen the thought process on the other side it would have made things so much clearer.  

I will never let myself think that Vin actually beat the lord ruler.  After seeing the bands of mourning with no infinite supply of atium, there is no way to convince me that even with the mists Vin could defeat the lord ruler without the lord ruler himself wanting to be rid of his responsibilities.  Rashek must have been so tired of all of the ungrateful folks in Scadrial hating him.  Even his allies and trusted nobles lived their entire lives in fear of him.  That dude wanted to die.  In a way thinking that actually makes me more happy with that scene than just Vin getting mists power upgrade to a temporary level 20 for boss fight and then once its over she returns to her level 4 rogue self.  

[AquaRegia]

17 minutes ago, Tamriel Wolfsbaine said:

I just think certain aspects of the books fall a bit flat due to knowing our heroes are going to prevail.  Which is a fine thing.  But the heroes drawing on the mists or using bands that make them gods at the last minute every book is rough.

Rashek must have been so tired of all of the ungrateful folks in Scadrial hating him.  That dude wanted to die.  In a way thinking that actually makes me more happy with that scene than just Vin getting mists power upgrade to a temporary level 20 for boss fight and then once its over she returns to her level 4 rogue self.  

While I disagree, these are definitely solid points.  The Plot Armor can seem awfully thick sometimes.

I prefer a story where the "good guy" both lives AND wins.  I loved both Era 1 and Era 2, even though some heroes die.  (I did NOT like Game of Thrones.)  But your position does make sense to me; if the heroes can always be counted on to find the "one weird trick" to beat the bad guy, every single time, no matter how powerful or well prepared the bad guy is... where's the actual drama?  It's a tough line for an author to walk, and some readers will be left unsatisfied.

[Tamriel Wolfsbaine]

On 12/20/2021 at 6:09 AM, AquaRegia said:

While I disagree, these are definitely solid points.  The Plot Armor can seem awfully thick sometimes.

I prefer a story where the "good guy" both lives AND wins.  I loved both Era 1 and Era 2, even though some heroes die.  (I did NOT like Game of Thrones.)  But your position does make sense to me; if the heroes can always be counted on to find the "one weird trick" to beat the bad guy, every single time, no matter how powerful or well prepared the bad guy is... where's the actual drama?  It's a tough line for an author to walk, and some readers will be left unsatisfied.

Its hard for me to truly think of a way I would prefer it be done.  I don't want to sound as if I am unsatisfied.   In fact the Scadrial books are some of my favorite books of all time.  Just for world building and the magic system not necessarily the plots or characters.  I feel for authors.  Making a protagonist and an antagonist be on an even playing field is very hard.  Then the questions arise of why this badguy hasn't already been defeated.  The other side of that coin is making a badguy powerful and ruthless enough that now you risk readers having to accept that your protagonist just had a massive string of nat 20s rolled and the enemy had a few too many nat 1s.  (I guess a more appropriate shoutout would be to say Vin rolled a pair of 5s and 8 nudges where the lord ruler forgot to put anything in his defense dice pool).  

It is a tricky spot to be in.  I have long stopped looking at books for a realistic story arc where evil and good both have decent representation from the author. It just doesn't happen.  Nor can it if you are an author who hopes to have a world become your living.  Not many people are happy to pay to read about "He who shall not be named" murdering an 11 year old who has only had a years worth of wizard training... not many folks will keep investing in your stories if the stories were all about TLR sending out his inquisitors to lay waste to entire houses and ska populations.  

I personally would have a blast reading about TLRs struggles keeping Ruin locked away from ending all life on scadrial all the while having everyone on the planet hate him.  TLR was the true tragic story.  Have the scene played out from his point of view as this ska mistborn fights in the square and then kills your personally made death dealer.  To read what was going through his head as a spear gets plunged into him.... especially after seeing the scene where the bands of mourning were used... everything being in slow motion.  Rashek just allowing it to happen.  The anticipation of yet another assassination attempt that he will allow to succeed but then tap his gold minds before he squishes the bug... the single symbol of hope... 

I loved in alloy of law when it showed from Miles point of view.  The jumping off of the roof of the building knowing its going to hurt but not really caring anymore.  The bones all breaking and mending just as quickly as he hits the ground.  More stuff like that to prove that the badguy is still... a guy with a functioning brain that is capable of thought and full of motive.  

Thanos was the greatest badguy of the MCU because we truly saw all of his whos whats whens where's and whys.  He was more than just the designated sparring partner for that installment of the storyline. 

Making a good heel is the hardest part of any story line.  Making a hero people love is easy.  Talk about their life and kids at home then throw the badguys after him and give some flare as he wins.  Making a good badguy is hard.  The inquisitors are some of the better badguys out there.  Miles was a fine badguy but the Cett just falls a bit flat. 

Luckily I just love the magic system and the world.  Brando Sando has be so locked into anything in Scadrial just because I want to learn more about the dang magic.   It is my curiosity that he has captured.  Sometimes that is even better than having a great story.  

[cometaryorbit]

I like Alloy of Law, but then I like pulpy stories, and found Shadows of Self rather too dark as a follow up (I like it better now, but on a first read it was a shock, as I was expecting something closer to Alloy's tone than Era 1).

I figured BoM did answer the kidnapped Allomancers thing, that they were the source of the Set's spikes.

[Sp00ks]

On 12/19/2021 at 10:02 PM, Tamriel Wolfsbaine said:

Maybe this I am just a glutton for punishment but I wish more heroes died in these books.  As much as I love the heroes and would be sad seeing any of them die (Kels death was so epic I am actually sad that he is doing his cognitive shadow whatever... let me man have his epic exit and be happy for it).  I so wish for some red wedding scenes too but it is rough too.   

Sometimes plot armor is too thick and the heroes becoming ultra clever and finding that little trick to overcome the baddies that noone else has ever beat before is too much for me.  

All that said the way Miles gets defeated I thought was epic.  It makes me smile when I think about the fact that our main protagonists couldn't do it.  If one of them died I would have been sad but at the same time the victory would have felt oh so much better.  

Then again I always thought a cool movie would be shot from one persons point of view and then before the end of whatever conflict happens you see that character die... heck you don't even need to see the character die because as they die the credits start rolling.  Completely unresolved story and just the end.   It would be a totally rage inducing ending to a story but honestly to break up the endless plot armor I think it would be worth it.  

Hard agree. I know people say "people don't have to die for things to be compelling", but when bad guys are dropping left and right, it sure feels weird that no good guys die. 

People do die in the Cosmere, usually one in each stormlight and era 1 mistborn book, but Brandon kinda half asses it a lot with all the fake outs. 

[agrabes]

On 12/19/2021 at 8:28 AM, Sp00ks said:

It's not that I dislike the magical fights, I just feel like his big end of book ones feel poorly written sometimes. This is very difficult for me to explain. I guess it's maybe that, often the climactic end of book fight happens AFTER the main character has finished their emotional arc for the book. Like again, WoR, the fight happens after that scene (not gonna put spoilers but you know the one) and the fight really just feels like "Wow Kaladin sure is epic now guys" rather than there being an actual emotional conflict that I care about. I LOVE the emotional payoffs, I dislike the fights that come after them. The end of the Final Empire and We'll of Ascension we're really good since the emotional payoffs were part of the fights at the end 

I know it's the point and that they all need to eventually come together. That's not the problem. My issue with it is he often handles it pretty poorly, at least in my opinion. Sometimes, he handles it fine, I like the Ghost bloods since it's very gradually revealed. I really dislike things like the Ire where it just "happens" and feels extremely forced. There are other examples but these are the easiest.

I'm with you on the cosmere reveals and a lot of other things - it's just something that happens at times in Sanderson's writing.  Personally, I liked the end of WoR and it felt earned to me because he still did have to go through a major emotional arc first.  But, many other things don't land for me.  The way I've started to think of it is that it feels like Sanderson has certain moments planned out where Character X is supposed to meet Character Y or Z event needs to happen or whatever and even though there hasn't really been time to build up to it in a way that makes it feel good he's kind of like "Well, it's gotta happen now or we'll be bogged down forever, so it's happening even if it feels awkward."  Compare that to books like WoT or GoT where those kinds of meet ups and big events feel extremely natural and its a stark contrast.  But, then again GRRM spends a decade writing each book and the last two he released were originally intended to be one big book (or was it books 3 and 4?).  And Jordan also found himself bogged down for years tying up loose ends with tons of subplots and was never able to finish his series.

By contrast, I think Sanderson sees these moments and realizes he's not totally pulling them off but figures he needs to just keep going or he'll never get where he wants to go with the story.  So, as long as it's not too prevalent I am ok with it - he's able to tell a lot of really cool stories because he doesn't bog himself down making things exactly perfect.  Honestly, RoW was starting to push the limit for me though.  So, I hope he pulls it back with SA5.

But on the topic of Mistborn Era 2 - if we could cut Wayne's character I would like these books so much more.  Wayne's humor is just absolutely terrible.  Everything about him just feels unnatural.  I know it's the kind of humor Sanderson personally likes, but it does not land for me.  Wayne feels like that weird fan servicey character that gets added into video games sometimes and partly breaks the 4th wall by being all like "Yeah, I like all the stuff you fans like too, isn't this stuff SOOOOOO cooolllll?????"  I generally liked Era 2, but haven't touched the books since they first came out.  I need to go back and reread them this next year.

[Sp00ks]

2 hours ago, agrabes said:

But on the topic of Mistborn Era 2 - if we could cut Wayne's character I would like these books so much more.  Wayne's humor is just absolutely terrible.  Everything about him just feels unnatural.  I know it's the kind of humor Sanderson personally likes, but it does not land for me.  Wayne feels like that weird fan servicey character that gets added into video games sometimes and partly breaks the 4th wall by being all like "Yeah, I like all the stuff you fans like too, isn't this stuff SOOOOOO cooolllll?????"  I generally liked Era 2, but haven't touched the books since they first came out.  I need to go back and reread them this next year.

I didn't mind Wayne that much honestly. I feel like, knowing myself, I should have disliked him, but he didn't bother me too much. I think part of it has to do with me having listened to the audio books of era 2 rather than reading them. The reader gave him a decent voice and I feel like his delivery of the lines made them fine. Wayne sorta feels similar to Lopen from Stormlight I guess

Edited December 23, 2021 by Sp00ks
Clerification

[Tamriel Wolfsbaine]

1 hour ago, Sp00ks said:

I didn't mind Wayne that much honestly. I feel like, knowing myself, I should have disliked him, but he didn't bother me too much. I think part of it has to do with me having listened to the audio books of era 2 rather than reading them. The reader gave him a decent voice and I feel like his delivery of the lines made them fine. Wayne sorta feels similar to Lopen from Stormlight I guess

I was going to mention the exact same thing.  I am sure if I read era 2 as opposed to listening to it while driving hours and hours at a time through rural Wyoming Wayne may have come across different.  The reader doing all the different accents for Wayne and the fact that sometimes I had to guess if it was him in a scene or not made it much more enjoyable.  Waynes powerset I also happen to like more than any of the others.   Given my admitted love for the magic system > the stories themselves I have no problem saying that any scene with Wayne and or kandra made the books worth reading.   I felt like era 1 had so much flying through the sky with the mistcloak flapping behind the protagonist that with Wax that portion of era 2 sort of turned on my snooze button.  We get it you push off of metal and fly.  The only steel pushing scene that interested me at all this go around was in bands of mourning when the lady at that big social event was talking to Wax about the F iron effects on Allomantic steel.   Even then I didn't care about the steel I just let my brain start jumping around at the possibilities of flying via jumps and weight manipulation with Allomantic pewter and Feruchemical iron.  

 

Thankfully these books all offer a little something something for most fantasy readers tastes.   

[agrabes]

On 12/22/2021 at 10:07 PM, Sp00ks said:

I didn't mind Wayne that much honestly. I feel like, knowing myself, I should have disliked him, but he didn't bother me too much. I think part of it has to do with me having listened to the audio books of era 2 rather than reading them. The reader gave him a decent voice and I feel like his delivery of the lines made them fine. Wayne sorta feels similar to Lopen from Stormlight I guess

Yeah, nothing against you for liking him.  I just can't stand Wayne or Lopen.  I think Lopen is probably worse, but only slightly.  Lift is right on that line, if she were to tell a few more bad jokes she'd move to "grit your teeth while reading" territory haha.  I could see how the audiobook could definitely help with a character like that though, I just never listen to the audiobooks.

[Sp00ks]

12 minutes ago, agrabes said:

Yeah, nothing against you for liking him.  I just can't stand Wayne or Lopen.  I think Lopen is probably worse, but only slightly.  Lift is right on that line, if she were to tell a few more bad jokes she'd move to "grit your teeth while reading" territory haha.  I could see how the audiobook could definitely help with a character like that though, I just never listen to the audiobooks.

Hilariously, despite not really minding Wayne or Lopen, I can't stand Lift lol

[AquaRegia]

39 minutes ago, Sp00ks said:

Hilariously, despite not really minding Wayne or Lopen, I can't stand Lift lol

I absolutely LOVE all three of them!

[Ubeka]

I personally wasn't sold on AoL till the very end. It was an "okay" read for most of the part and I agree on the previous criticism that it just takes really long for Waxillium to actually jump into action and, y'know, do protagonist things. In a way, most of my frustration with that book came from just not meeting expectations. For one, like many others, I was disappointed to see hardly any callback or even mention of the major characters or even terms and magics from Era 1 - on the other, my eyebrows raised that, after everyone sold this book to me as cowboy-themed and stuff, we leave the prairie after a chapter or two and instead go back to the city.

Things came together for me at Miles' execution and when Marsh finally shows up. That was a great callback and such a good setup for sequels. Then the reveal on the train was even better. That was when I suddenly liked AoL. I absolutely loved SoS after that (though, to be fair, that again left me wanting in terms of promises - the Hemalurgy book wasn't even really mentioned or discussed iirc and Trell and everything else the Set was working on kinda left up in the air) and BoM was decent.

Era 2 as a whole has a very weird thing going on where, very unlike Sanderson usually, it sets a bunch of stuff up but doesn't really get back to that or actually deliver already. This is sadly true even for basic metals. We've never seen a single nicroburst or leecher in action for example - which is a bit of a letdown when it's only now been revealed.

[Kingsdaughter613]

3 hours ago, Ubeka said:

I personally wasn't sold on AoL till the very end. It was an "okay" read for most of the part and I agree on the previous criticism that it just takes really long for Waxillium to actually jump into action and, y'know, do protagonist things. In a way, most of my frustration with that book came from just not meeting expectations. For one, like many others, I was disappointed to see hardly any callback or even mention of the major characters or even terms and magics from Era 1 - on the other, my eyebrows raised that, after everyone sold this book to me as cowboy-themed and stuff, we leave the prairie after a chapter or two and instead go back to the city.

Things came together for me at Miles' execution and when Marsh finally shows up. That was a great callback and such a good setup for sequels. Then the reveal on the train was even better. That was when I suddenly liked AoL. I absolutely loved SoS after that (though, to be fair, that again left me wanting in terms of promises - the Hemalurgy book wasn't even really mentioned or discussed iirc and Trell and everything else the Set was working on kinda left up in the air) and BoM was decent.

Era 2 as a whole has a very weird thing going on where, very unlike Sanderson usually, it sets a bunch of stuff up but doesn't really get back to that or actually deliver already. This is sadly true even for basic metals. We've never seen a single nicroburst or leecher in action for example - which is a bit of a letdown when it's only now been revealed.

This is because Era 2 is setting up Era 3. Era 2 was a happy accident and is mostly a pulpy, character driven work. Era 3 is where most of the over arching elements of the meta, as opposed to the character, plot will be addressed.

For example, a nicroburst is supposed to be a major character in Era 3, so Brandon is hardly going to show us one before then.

[+Bliev]

I love that Brandon tries such different genres and tones in his work. The jarring differences between Era 1 and Era 2 aren't everyone's cup of tea, but as someone who likes everything from Regency Romance to social satire to epic fantasy to murder mystery, I love that there's a Brandon book for all my ephemeral moods! lol

I will admit that coming into Alloy directly out of Era 1 was jarring. And it wasn't until I re-read Era 2 a couple years later, back to back, that I truly fell in love with it. Now I think the characters are some of my favorites and it's a much more light hearted, easier read for me, and sometimes that's exactly what I need.

[Rainybeet]

I liked that it was more lighthearted than the first 3 books, especially the 2nd which reminded me of the Star Wars movies that got bogged down in Galactic Senate mechanations.