Underlord

Man, this book was excellent. The previous five books just built this one to a place where every single page seemed like it was brimming with excitement or anticipation. The fights were incredible and I was genuinely nervous of the results during a fair amount of them. The villains were well done. Every single side character had interesting scenes that elevated their role in the story. The plot was tight and focused less on training (although it was still there, because this is progression fantasy after all). The ending left the story in such an intriguing place that I can't wait to start book 7. I even FINALLY liked Lindon, who had to do some soul searching about himself in order to progress, and had to have difficult conversations with his companions or make hard choices that allowed him to grow beyond “yo I need to get strong, fam”.

Everything about this book worked for me, except one thing, which isn't a problem with this book. It's a problem with this series, or maybe, progression fantasy in general. The way that every SINGLE person Lindon comes into contact with in each book is always just so much ludacriously stronger than the previous book. I get it for main/supporting villains. Obviously, Lindon is not going to be doing “final battles” with Jades or Lowgolds when he is close to progressing to Underlord. But Jades and Lowgolds still EXIST. I feel like every character is constantly progressing at an insane rate, even minor characters pop back up and they've progressed off screen to be at Lindon's level or stronger. I get this is supposed to be the draw of progression fantasy, but I disagree. Part of what makes Lindon and Yerin's arc for progression satisfying is that they are progressing so much quicker than others due to a combination of skill, incredible luck, and hard work. It cheapens the story for every person they meet to always be at their level or above them. They couldn't have a friend who they genuinely enjoy being around, who has some sort of other skill, like being really great at cooking and strategy, but is only at a Jade level? They can't have a member of their forces in a battle be a Lowgold? It's just annoying when it's EVERY. SINGLE. CHARACTER. Maybe other people like this aspect. But I don't, because it would never happen. Powerful people are usually surrounded by less powerful people. Eithan, Lindon, Yerin, Mercy, and Orthos only bothering to talk to people if they're more powerful reeks of billionaires not consorting with peasants, and it cheapens their characters and the story in general. That's my two cents on this issue.

But this book isn't any worse than the rest with this; I mention it here finally because most of the series is constantly mentioning how rare it is to be Truegold and then suddenly in this book there's like 829272 Truegolds, haha.

But that's the end of my rant. This book is great. I look forward to book 7!