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Ok, first things first: I freaking loved the ending to this series. I loved it enough that I hoped there was a spinoff comic being teased at the end, but that doesn't seem to be the case (unfortunately, because Baby Kutter needs her own book PRONTO).

That said, the antagonist of this book is fantastic, he's the big bad evil guy that existed at the outskirts of this series since its inception, and it confirms a theory from early in my reading, that some supers (like Retro Girl specifically is mentioned) are just more like timeless demigods who are constantly reborn. So where was all that during the rest of the series run?

In this book, we see Walker being terrified that Wolfe will somehow return, to the point where Triphammer makes him a "just-in-case" Glock switch thingy for his gun to help Walker sleep at night. Now I'm aware that this book came at the end of the rest of the series, but it's pretty clear they wanted to foreshadow that MAYBE Wolfe could come back, so where was all that during the series?

In any case, even if it does come out of left field (this is very much the 'End of Evangelion' of this comic series) it rounds up the last few threads left in the series and ties them off nicely.

I am definitely going to come back and reread this one, because I feel there's still some tasty snacks hidden amongst the pages.

Honestly, this book was so good I'm having trouble what to talk about, so I'll just kinda free associate. The writing is amazing. The unreliable narrator is pulled off masterfully. There are scenes in the book that made me physically tense. The end was somehow both a happy ending and a sad ending, which are my favorite kind.

I could say more but honestly, you should just read the book.

I am definitely going to come back and reread this one, because I feel there's still some tasty snacks hidden amongst the pages.

Honestly, this book was so good I'm having trouble what to talk about, so I'll just kinda free associate. The writing is amazing. The unreliable narrator is pulled off masterfully. There are scenes in the book that made me physically tense. The end was somehow both a happy ending and a sad ending, which are my favorite kind.

I could say more but honestly, you should just read the book.

I think my thoughts about this book were best expressed in a text I sent to a friend: this is like Stephen King wrote a Dean Koontz novel.

It's definitely more sci-fi than horror, which is my favorite subgenre of King stories, and there's a political/anti-war theme that runs through the book that was written pretty well: King thinks drone strikes suck (and he's right) and isn't a fan of youth being stolen by the military for endless wars. The justification for those "drone strikes" (which becomes a play on words later in the book) is shakey and based on questionable intelligence. The people who run The Institute are mostly veterans and former law enforcement, and they engage in barbaric tactics both "on the battlefield" (aka inside a child Gitmo) and when recruiting new soldiers. Those child soldiers are lied to, emptied out, and discarded once they aren't useful anymore.

Very cool job weaving all that in with the narrative, interesting wordplay, and a fun thriller story. The only place it lacks, honestly, is with the mostly typical King ending. The last few chapters were a bit info-dumpy and clearly there to answer the unanswered question of "why", but the ride there was fun and kept me into it.

The series will be interesting to watch, just because I wonder how many of the showrunners really picked up on the underlying themes of the book.

Tl;Dr: it's "Scanners" but as an allegory for the military industrial complex and the war on terror.

There's a lot to say about this book. It reminds me a lot of the first three books in the series, especially in terms of pacing. There's never a moment where the story stops happening, except maybe to build on some of the characters. The pacing is incredible, and sets up the final book in a way that had me both excited to finish the series and dreading the end - I genuinely don't want this to be over.

This book was incredibly well-paced. I won't spoil anything, but there's a major character death involved, but it happens during one of the massive battles in the book. But the others can't really stop, and instead, they carry that with them until the end of the book. When you finally get a chance to take a breath, you realize there's one more thing to do: you have to mourn with the remaining crew of the Roci. It's such a brilliant, well-written moment that truly reflects what it must be like to lose someone you love in battle, but having to continue fighting.

I'm taking a bit of a breather before Leviathan Falls, but good lord, I can't wait to see how all this ends up.