Bryce

The Kingdom of Gods is a messy novel. It juggles so many different plot points and characters at once, some handled worse than others. It's a disjointed book and the weakest of the trilogy. And yet, for whatever reason, I found myself fully invested for (most of) the duration of the story. There were plenty of things I didn't like (unnecessary characters that only complicated things and added nothing, some general weird character inconsistency), but the beautiful prose and fascinating world kept me interested.

A short read, but a good one. Typically great and imaginative story from [a:Neil Gaiman 1221698 Neil Gaiman https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1234150163p2/1221698.jpg] illustrated by the artists behind the brilliant [b:Daytripper 8477057 Daytripper Fábio Moon https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1327876816s/8477057.jpg 13341979].

The world-building is great, the OASIS is quite fun to imagine, as is all the related tech. The world outside, and the complications that arise from the game, are not very fun to imagine at all. It's unusually cheerful dystopia.

The pop culture references invading every page are never very well-integrated into the story. As others mentioned, it's mostly there to pander to nostalgia. They are fun at times, but a good 50% could have been cut, let's be honest.

The characters were pretty bland, but by the end I was admittedly invested in their fates. The twist related to Aech surprised me, and I really wish the book would have delved into that a bit more. It would have made a much more three-dimensional character, and there would have been opportunities for some poignant scenes.

Despite all of this, I gave the book 4 stars. Mostly for its entertainment value, and pure imagination. With a slightly leaner plot and deeper characters, this could have been both fun and genuinely great. Alas, it's just fun.

I liked this book a lot more than most people seemed to.

I was really interested in the characters and setting, though the story didn't really captivate me until the guests in question arrived. Then it went in a direction I wasn't expecting, and I loved it.

However, once the major conflict was resolved, the book went on for a while longer. One of the last scenes, with youngest daughter Smudge and a family horse, was completely anticlimactic and uninteresting to me. I really could have done without that scene. The other scenes toward the end worked very well, offering a satisfying conclusion to a few loose ends.

The art isn't bad, and a story that has some promise but does little with it. I didn't really get this book. There are little plot points scattered throughout, but they have no resolution or follow-up, and then it ends.