I took a leap here and read a local artist's book. I did not like it. I finished it, but then the last chapter was an excerpt from Book 2 and I just stared into space (and not like you would after an amazing book)... DNF this series...
The story evolution is quite strong... though I felt that there was some repetitive ideas which made this a bit slow, but the cliff hanger made it worth it. Onto Vol 6!