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A review by tiggum
Mydnight's Hero by Joe Dever
2.0
The biggest problem with this book is just that nothing stands out about it at all. It's bland and forgettable. There are no memorable characters, events or encounters, and the major antagonist doesn't even show up until the end. The last book may have made an impression for the wrong reasons, but at least it made an impression. This one is just dull.
I did really enjoy the fact that, right near the end, but that doesn't make up for the lack of anything interesting or the absurd linearity of it. There's about one meaningful decision in the entire book. No side quests, no diversions, alternative paths, it's a straight line the whole way. So, as boring as it is the first time, it's even worse the second because it plays out exactly the same way every time. I'm not going to say it's the worst book in the series, but it's probably the one I'm least likely to ever re-read.
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The collector's edition bonus adventure, Lost in the Kelderwastes by Florent Haro and [a:Vincent Lazzari|8422725|Vincent Lazzari|https://s.gr-assets.com/assets/nophoto/user/u_50x66-632230dc9882b4352d753eedf9396530.png], is about as uninspiring as the main story. There are some extremely long sections with no decisions to make, and the authors were clearly very pleased with their villain (although there's really nothing special or memorable about him) so they gave him way too much time to monologue. But the biggest issue, for me, was the protagonist's lack of agency. Even when you do get to make decisions, mostly they don't feel important because the character you're playing as doesn't really have much choice about what to do anyway.
I did really enjoy the fact that, right near the end,
Spoiler
you can get thrown in gaol for queue-jumping---
The collector's edition bonus adventure, Lost in the Kelderwastes by Florent Haro and [a:Vincent Lazzari|8422725|Vincent Lazzari|https://s.gr-assets.com/assets/nophoto/user/u_50x66-632230dc9882b4352d753eedf9396530.png], is about as uninspiring as the main story. There are some extremely long sections with no decisions to make, and the authors were clearly very pleased with their villain (although there's really nothing special or memorable about him) so they gave him way too much time to monologue. But the biggest issue, for me, was the protagonist's lack of agency. Even when you do get to make decisions, mostly they don't feel important because the character you're playing as doesn't really have much choice about what to do anyway.