Brambles and Thorns

<strong>Alright</strong><br /><br />Lots of filler and the book doesn't start until 40% no real conclusion it just felt like the author got tired.

First of all, i really enjoyed the series up to this point. But this particular book almost made me scream in frustration. <br /><br /><input type="checkbox" class="spoiler__control" aria-label="The following text has been marked spoiler. Toggle checkbox to reveal or hide." onchange="this.labels[0].setAttribute('aria-hidden', !this.checked);" id="6db8cc5c-789c-497e-9ec3-058f044209f7" /><label aria-hidden="true" class="spoiler" for="6db8cc5c-789c-497e-9ec3-058f044209f7"> The first massive issue is: Nothing meaningful happens in this book. Like nothing at all. The whole book could have been a catch up chapter in the next one along the lines of "they improved a couple of skills and had some minor adventures", and nothing would have been lost. It was mind numbingly boring at times. No relevant developments, either in plot or for the characters. <br /><br />The second issue ties into the first. The non existent climax of this book. A riddle dungeon is already not that exiting as a climax, but okay, if that floats your boat. But telling more than one chapter from the PoV of some Mortimer is just beyond annoying. I dont give a flying fuck about Mortimer. Why torture me with his meaningless ramblings, when i could read about interesting characters? </label><br /><br />Overall, a massive let down compared to the other books in the series and i hope the author can get back to the quality he used to achieve.

<strong>Filler</strong><br /><br />I like the series a lot but I must say this book felt unfinished it felt like filler and did not really move the story forward as far as I could tell. It bored me And it took about a week For me to actually finish it. The other books in this series so far I've flown through them in about A-day. I seriously had to push myself to get through the entire book I almost quit reading probably about 5 times but I do wanna read the next from the series because so far it's been good other than this book. If I didn't finish this one I'm not sure I would have been able to continue you in the series.

<strong>This was terrible </strong><br /><br />Look, I get you get paid by the page so you don't want to delete filler but... jesus. You might as well have made the first half a recipe book.

<strong>Unfocused, unfinished narrative</strong><br /><br />Most of this book is just repetitive world building fluff inserted into very awkward places. We are talking multiple different flashbacks interrupting current events multiple times sometimes covering the same thing. Very little if the book touches on Trent and his party and very little happens beyond boring training segments and a boring puzzle trial that isn't much of a puzzle. There was a lack of suspense. A lack of danger. A lack of progress.<br /><br />For example, the book opens with characters we never see again and goes over events whose effects are only minorly and indirectly seen much, much further in the book. It could have been removed and the events left a mystery to be investigated for later, but no, we had to have a boring introduction world building a portion of the world that doesn't show up again. Completely amateurish.<br /><br />Very little to recommend this book, but it is mechanically decently written. There are only a few grammatical issues. Typos are few and far between. Sentences are not overly long although they tend towards unnecessary length rather than concise brevity.<br /><br />At the end of the day, it is a book. Read it for leisure, but don't expect much from it.

<strong>A bit of a let down </strong><br /><br />Having waited with baited breath for this book I am a. It disappointed. It seemed short and very much like a place holder. The whole book covers only a few days and does very little to actually advance the story. The writing is as usual quite good. Perhaps I am a victim of my own expectations but the book delivered none of what was intimated at the end of the last volume.

<strong>well. that was... mum... a book</strong><br /><br />Wow, what just happened?? <br /><br />800 pages and virtually nothing happens or is accomplished. <br /><br />Let's start with the good. The writing is generally solid. Do I recommend the series - yes. Am I going to read the next book - yes. Am I recommending this book - no. <br /><br />I am hopung this was just a standard middle-book slip. But it feels a lot like robert jordan or george rr martin in their later books. 800 pages and virtually none of it mattered. <br /><br />Could have been ok had he focused on character development, but truthfully, the secondary characters all feel just as two dimensional as they did at the start of the book. <br /><br />There's a lot of promise in this series and this author, but none of it was realized in this book.

<strong>please delete and start over</strong><br /><br />I’ve really enjoyed the other books in this series, but this one was sorely lacking. So much filler. No plot progression. The MC spends most of book doing stupid things. Al also the author is establishing a troubling precedent. The MC surrounds himself with incompetent weaklings and carries them the whole time.

I'm honestly not much of a review writer, at least not when it comes to books. Still, I felt like I had to write at least something for Brambles and Thorns, mainly because it's my favorite LitRPG series, and this fourth installment was...well, a disappointment of sorts.<br /><br />The thing about disappointments is that they are a relative thing, not absolute. A disappointment doesn't mean bad, it just means that it's less than you expected. That it left you wanting more, wishing more.<br /><br />Brambles and Thorns is not a full book, and it shows. It's just a fragment of one, a meager first act that does little to satisfyingly continue it's amazing prequel Moonlight Banishes Shadows. We get just a taste of what's to come, of where we are going, of the development lurking in the shadows, but it's all promises, half-hearted ones at that, that are not delivered. Not even close.<br /><br />Brambles and Thorns reads like you would read any book of the series, with zeal and excitement, your mind raging with possibilities and expectations. But then it just ends.<br /><br />When in any of the other three books an arc would've finished, the amazing rewards revealed, and that interesting development finally blossoming, right before all that, the book ends. <br /><br />There is no development, be it character, plot, or power. No, there is only the foundations of one, nothing else.<br /><br />And still...I can't rate this book less that five stars, because if I haven't hinted at it enough, this book still promises. While the first three promised and delivered, yhea, this stops halfway, but the promises are oh so sweet, and it still gets me excited to just imagine the pay-off. I just like Trent too much, I just enjoy the plot and world too much, and I have nothing but respect for the author's approach to his writing, and the way he sees his story.<br /><br />So for that, yhea, Five Stars, is it Moonlight Banishes Shadows? No. But I still got a dip into this amazing world, and although it left me hungry, the day the next book comes out, I'll be reading it.

<strong>I love this world</strong><br /><br />Having the MC be almost entirely clueless about day to day things, even while the few bits he does know are applied incorrectly, makes for a lot of amusement.<br /><br />As long as this is, there isn’t really enough movement. This focused on character development and world building more than conflict and narrative progress. New characters and a few old faces showed up in side tales.<br /><br />In some ways, this novel didn’t need to be. The author needed to realize the details to continue to progress his world, but most of it could be added to a future novel in dribs and drabs. It has the essence of a training montage, without the mind numbingly boring repetitiveness. It’s all entertaining, and it fills a lot of holes, but the narrative barely creaks forward a half-step.<br /><br />That sounds harsh, but please understand this is book 4 in a series. If you read the first three you should have known what you were getting into.<br /><br />All of that said, I still thoroughly enjoyed returning to Trent’s world.