Master of the Phantom Isle

This is where the series actually gets going. We've spent the last two books slogging through necessary setup, and here's where things finally pick up.

Ronodin is well done, but he's a bad replacement for the Sphinx. While the Sphinx had an excellent motivation that led to nuanced decision-making, Ronodin is a goofy anarchist with the depth of a kiddie pool. Sure, he gets the job done, but he's just not cutting it. He also doesn't even try to manipulate Seth, which is what Book 2 did such a good job setting up. Nowhere does he try to convince Seth that he's his brother, as he tried to do in the scant end scene of Book 2. Neither does he try and convince Seth that reality supports his (Ronodin's) side. Instead, he just sends him on quests and is careless enough to let Seth develop on his own. The Sphinx does in this book what Ronodin should've, which is embarrassing given the gross lack of respect the author shows the Sphinx. Why does the Sphinx want in on the dragon plot? Who knows. What's his motivation, now that his goal from the last book has been foiled? No idea. It's sloppy. Which is highly unfortunate, given the potential elsewhere. However, while I do like 4 and 5, this book is still in the awkward transition period of still being overburdened with fetch quests and exposition. Sure, it makes sense plot-wise, but there's an absurd amount of magical items, rules, and missions that feel as if they bloat the focus. Seriously, get to 75% of this book, and then stop and consider what each character is doing. None have a clear 1 or 2 step process to get to their goal. Instead, this book fills its time with buried treasure, merfolk, octopus people, cyclopses, a magical macguffin pearl, a volcano flower, and a hypothetically imposing villain who is promptly overpowered by what should be an equal power (this is later explained, though) and then never heard from for the rest of the series.

This book has more action than the last two combined. It's going places. But it still suffers from not having a clear direction or motivation for most of the characters.