Getting Interesting.

The Good:

The pacing picks up in this book. While sanctuary 2 and its busywork nearly made me lose interest in the series, book 8 gives you more 'main quest' to sink your teeth into. Things finally move along again, getting more done than the last few books combined. The act of reviewing every stat on every character finally takes a back seat, allowing the story to continue. Previously two-dimensional characters of importance are fleshed out and their motivations explored instead of fixating on doing the same to every single side character and their uncle.

The Bad:

About a third of the book is spent exploring an ultra-rich trillionaire fantasy where elurion overcomes all his non-combat problems by throwing money around. It's a bit like a dnd campaign where the group spends an entire session shopping and politicking, mixed with fantasising about being one of the richest people on earth. Elurion also becomes a slave owner, hires an overseer to manage them, puts them to work in a factory, and resultantly plans to meddle with the economy. The moralization of treating them like 'employees' doesn't make the situation feel any less 'gross', especially with the modern corporate landscape and job market being what it is. The overseer/'ceo' mentioning that workers will simply do good work out of fear of not being fed was cringe. I get that the author probably isn't advocating for slavery, but the sections of the book focusing on the protagonists acquisition of a slave workforce were very uncomfortable to listen to. The complex convolutions in rationalization and forced circumstantial moralization supported by the plot do not help. It's a complex issue that you don't understand, don't just try to bend the story to try and make it moral then sweep the conversation under the rug in the next chapter.

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