Remnant III

Before I trash this series, I want to say that the author (Arand) is actually a skilled writer. I enjoy the way he writes for the most part (the thinking followed by mid-conversation thing makes me rage after having seen it a hundred times though), and some of his characters are particularly well-done and noteworthy. He has skill and talent.

That being said, this was one of the singularly worst series I've ever read. The main character is so unlikable that I wanted him to die and let someone else take over the narrative. 95% of all the supporting characters were bland and indistinguishable. The last two books were little more than the same plot repeated over and over, just with variations in scale. At the resolution, there was zero tension or concern.

I only kept reading because it was part of the bigger Runner story. Do yourself a favor and find a summary of the perhaps 5 minutes worth of tie-in. Or click the spoiler below I guess.

I will say that, at the time of this review I've already read the next series, Fostering Faust, and it is much better. Not amazing, but after this turd it seemed like that ray of sunshine bursting through the clouds.

The unknown voice that is "testing" Steve is Zeus, the AI that is fighting against Runner. He was testing to see if Steve could destabilize the entire place, and since he did (via making the whole place depend upon him, and then Zeus taking him away), he passed the test and got sent on to do the same in world after world. He also got to take one person with him, Nancy the wight. And of course, after being an absolute shit of a human being, Steve finally started to think like the "Are we the bad guys?" meme. Too late, dumbass. But maybe he'll try to turn on Zeus later, no idea. Hopefully he never shows up again, because I hate him.