Mike

Fantastic, though it didn't quite reach the heights of The Will of the Many for me. That was a 5-star read, and this is more of a solid 4-4.5. It's a great follow-up that really expands the scope of the story.

Will of the many ending spoilers below.

The three worlds we get to explore are all interesting in their own way, though the two new ones do require some significant worldbuilding upfront. The back half of the book is definitely stronger once all that groundwork is laid and things can really start moving.

My only real issue was the chapter-to-chapter flow. Switching between the three worlds could be a bit jarring at times, and there were definitely moments where I found myself itching to get back to one storyline to see what happens next. That said, the endings and cliffhangers for each world are absolutely great. I'm already dying for the next book.

I definitely enjoyed this more than All System Red. Not a lot happens, but I found the overall story and vibe of this one a lot more entertaining than the first.

This was my first time reading George R. R. Martin. I haven't read any of the A Song of Ice and Fire books and I refuse to until they're finished. I really enjoyed all three novellas in this collection. The Hedge Knight and The Sworn Sword were my favorites, but The Mystery Knight was good as well. I liked the small focused story on Dunk and Egg rather than something sprawling and epic.

I really didn't care for it. The only saving grace was that it's less than 200 pages with a large font so it's easy to breeze through. The story itself is fine, a simple tale about following your dreams. I don't understand people who say this book changed their life or that they find profound meaning in it. Anyone with even a modicum of life experience shouldn't really find the ideas here very groundbreaking. Maybe a better read for younger readers who don't have much life experience yet.

I love Blake Crouch and wanted to dig more into his older books from before Dark Matter. I was worried this wasn't going anywhere but the last 50 pages really take a turn. If this were much longer I think it would drag a bit but that ended up not being the case. It's well suited to a film adaptation and I'm interested in seeing it in that format. Super quick read if you're a Blake Crouch fan and want more of his stuff.