Having previously enjoyed Mike Kraus’s Flashpoint series I decided to give this a shot. It started out well enough, but by book three it was getting boring. Characters are introduced but then skipped over and the big drama from the previous books gets resolved off screen with zero satisfaction considering the angst that’s been building up. Book six is a complete speedrun with every character getting a massive skill upgrade except Sarah, who for no reason whatsoever downs a bottle of stupid pills and shambles her way through to a “meh” resolution.
We never find out what the real purpose or who even was behind the whole Crawler invasion, or how their leadership could predict the storms so far in advance as to setup for them years prior, and the ending to that plot line was ridiculously unsatisfying.
As for the narrator, this is the first of his work I’ve come across, but will be skipping him in the future. He’s not as boring as say Christopher Ryan Grant, but he’s not even in the same continent as Tom Taylorson.
I’m starting to think the quality of Kraus’s work relies heavily on who his cowriter is, and all the humanity and personal drama that made Flashpoint enjoyable was solely the contribution of Tara Ellis, who was not part of this series.
If you’re on the bubble about which series to buy and haven’t yet picked one, seriously go with Flashpoint. Better story, better characters and much better narrator.