Stephen's Reviews > A Dubious Peace

Very much the beginning of a new/wider story arc, just not as compelling as those that came before.

That being said, all the things you enjoyed up to this point are found within. The characters are fun and the civilisation uplift angle which likely brought most of us to this series is still predominate.

Some progression, which is all good, but limited in actual consequence bar the last quarter of the book; though such is left for later books to explain. I mean steam engines.. please just give us actual trains, you talk about it for a whole book.. just trains on rails now.. please.

So overall it feels like a transition. Linking past events to the next stage. It means there is a lot of needed dialog to establish new relationships and such like; though many might find it a bit superfluous.

Unfortunately the depth of detail (which I normally enjoy) seem to impact the pacing a bit this time around. I mean it's cool that you've taught me to smelt iron but I would be interested in some movement in the wider story.

Yet I still like it, and if you have reached book 7 you will probably like it too.

So feel free to ignore my nitpicking and dive in.