Terminus

According to the author, Peter Clines, he's hanging up the Threshold universe for now with the conclusion of Terminus. That's probably a good idea. Though I still enjoyed the read, of the four books in the Threshold series, I think this is the weakest. I read 14, the first book, some time ago and Terminus references that book a lot and in fact uses one of the main characters from that book in the story. My memory is hazy about the details of 14 so I always was left thinking I should reread the book to clear up a lot of what was taking place in Terminus, but nah. This time the boundary between perceived reality and a Lovecraftian nightmare reality is centered on a small uncharted island about a thousand miles from Madagascar. Like the apartment building/machine in 14 there is another such building on the island, but the machine is beginning to fail and the boundary between worlds is weakening, allowing creatures from the nightmare world to cross over. What's even worse, a cult of semi-mutated people, touched by “The Great Old Ones” and led by a beautiful but deadly zealot, is heading to the island to destroy the machine and make sure the boundary comes completely down, giving “The Great Old Ones” they worship free rain to destroy. With all the action taking place inside and outside the building, as I got nearer the big finish I found the story became confusing trying to distinguish between which reality the characters were actually in. I guess it was the Albuquerque Door effect, a reference to the second book, The Fold. And, on top of all that cloning plays a part in the story as it relates to a particular character. IMHO it didn't need to be in this story and it and the character could have been jettisoned for something more satisfying. Oh, and why do we never learn if the bright green cockroaches do anything but hang around the Threshold boundary areas?