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This book goes back in time, and explains what was a bit of an unexplained matter of facts in the first book in this second part of the series. And I really liked it. Thinking back to the first books in the first series - it’s incredible what this series developed into, and what the characters and the universe has become. As usual, bring the next… however many books this will turn into… on!
Escalation is certainly a good start to the continuation, but it stays a little too true to it’s name for my taste: the entire book is essentially an escalation, the outcome of which is relatively given. It’s enjoyable, but the book takes a little too long to end up where it was always going to go. That said, there is a twist, and even though it’s telegraphed to the point where it’s hard to not see it coming, it’s a clever plot-point, and leaves the door wide open for this, part 2, of the series to get very, very, interesting. I’m very much looking forward to the rest of these books, since I know what they can be, and - frankly - anyone reading this book knows that too. If I choose to see this as a first chapter of a second book, rather than a book in and of itself, it’s a very solid start.
It seems inappropriate to call The Yellow Wall-Paper for “fun”, but… it’s fun. It’s a bite-sized short phycological thriller which probably needs to be read twice. As usual with books like this, I think the synopsis gives away more than it should, so if possible I’d go into it blind. But, regardless, it’s a fun mini-thriller, and it makes you think about it for quite a while afterwards.
This short story is basically exposition through conversation, but it’s interesting exposition, and a good conversation! We learn a lot more about the digital plague, and there are some interesting details which, having only read series 1 of the main saga so far, I feel might come into play in series 2… Overall, these four books were a satisfying set of short stories. However, it didn’t really tie up in the way I had expected from what, I thought, was a miniseries of sorts: I’m very confused at this book ending on a cliffhanger with a promise of the next short story “coming soon” - and, 5 years later, there doesn’t seem to be a next short story. My theory at the moment is that the conclusion to these short stories are (only) released in the, relatively recent, Fall of the Core collection that I thought only collected the four short stories in this season? I’m definitely going to have to buy it, just to check, but to avoid potential spoilers I’ll first read series 2 of the main saga first.
Given the quality of these short stories so far, this one felt a little bit like a filler. It spends half of the time re-iterating what we already knew, though, in a more dramatic, graphic, way, though it does end up exposing some new interesting plot-points. It ends on a cliffhanger, and the last of these short stories could get very interesting…