
Contains spoilers
I enjoyed this one. It was however much darker, filled with loss and anticipation of loss.
It confirmed a suspicion I've had since Book 1 that Carl and Donut will be forced to sacrifice someone towards the end or turn on one another. Early on they mention if a crawler gets far enough they can rule over their own planet, that immediately gave me a sense of king of the hill (even if you can take a deal to exit before then).
It ends with a twist that I found somewhat annoying, involving the Crown of Sepsis.
Contains spoilers
This was a daunting but captivating journey through this Everest tragedy.
The ending with the updated post script is a cautionary tale for everyone to consider carefully how you resolve conflict with others, a sad detail to end an already sad recounting. To be fair to Jon I don't think the retaliatory novel was in as good faith as claimed by Annatoli.
Each chapter started with quotes that I wish were woven more into the recounting rather than dropped in off to the side.
I also occasionally found some word choices a bit strange.