I really wasn't going to go forward with this series. After finding Left Hand a painful and clumsy exercise in poor writing I decided to ditch the series (which is a big thing for me)

Unfortunately some well-meaning friends gave me the third book for xmas last year. Well me being me, rather than thanking my friends and returning the book, I loaned The Last Four Things from the library.

What struck me first is an apparent change in tone. Maybe I just didn't pick up on it in the last book, but the voice narrating this piece espoused far more sarcastic humor than before. While the change in tone was welcome in a way as it morphed the melodrama of the story into satire, the series is still difficult. The main problem with Last Four Things it the protag Thom Cale, currently back with his Redeemer 'buddies' spends the majority of the book non-plussed about his situation, creating a similar effect in the reader.

Only by the last quarter does stuff start happening, and its reasonably exciting stuff, but like many episodes in a series, one finds the author may just be filling time before some decent events because these days your epic fantasy has to be at least seven books to be respectable.

Nonetheless Four Things was an improvement on the first book, less cringing prose (less not good mind you) the narration is slightly tighter and the flow of the book is smooth enough to read quickly which is a good thing.