bookshelves: arc

This conclusion to the Lifelike series is mostly satisfying. I certainly enjoyed the ride and recommend it to anyone who enjoyed the earlier installments.

The party fragmentation we saw in book 2 continues, and tensions escalate between Daedalus and BioMaas with our party trapped in the middle. No new major characters are introduced, which is good-- I think the character pool expanded overmuch in book 2, though it had the benefit of giving Eve some off-screen time to play around with being evil and it let the other characters forge relationships with each other. I think this is one of Kristoff's major skills as a writer. Not only does he create endearing and complex characters beyond the initial protagonist (with the possible exception of Cockney-slang talking Grimm, whose mannerisms struck me as unnecessary and distracting), he has those characters have connections and feuds with one another that don't involve that initial protagonist. It makes the cast into a true intertwined network instead of Eve being the hub of the wheel.

The downside to this large character pool is that we don't get to spend enough time with everyone. I particularly felt this with Eve. She has some transformative character moments that drive her on new paths, but we see little of it. I'm still nursing a grudge about Eve taking up with Gabriel and the others still not feeling fully justified, and it makes the climax of this book much less meaningful despite more screentime with Eve.

Despite the otherwise satisfying ending: there's one loose end that didn't seem to get resolution: Grace.