You know, I can't let this Swords of Exodus business sit.
[spoiler]The Mormon missionary soldiers had me rolling my eyes. There's comedy relief, there's "wacky," and then there's that. It's like a pair of Ned Flanders walked on to the scene.
"Hidey-ho neighbor!"
"Take out those machine guns!"
"Okely-dokaly!"
They don't literally say that, but that's more or less the tone of their responses. Something that might work in MHI, maybe, but not here. And then... and then. The big kill-off. The thing that wipes out almost all of Exodus. It is never seen. It is never identified. It is only hinted at, like maybe the evil guy unleashed hellhounds or something? Who knows? It's not like something like that might turn out to be incredibly important or anything. Oh, and CURSE YOUR SUDDEN AND INEVITABLE BETRAYAL... for reasons that still aren't exactly clear. Seriously, the character does her supervillain monologue and dramatic reveal and still makes no goddamn sense. "Because fuck you that's why" would've been less wordy, and it would've actually made a lot more sense.
But the thing that really pisses me off is never identifying The Thing that kills off Exodus. They were fighting in a missile silo/mine. They could have literally had ROCKS FALL EVERYONE DIES and it would've been a dramatic improvement. At least it wouldn't be "woo woo we're hinting at the supernaaaaaaaaaatural" and goddamn annoying. It removed all the tension from the story. I simply no longer cared what happened to Lorenzo or Valentine. My reaction up through the epilogue was a resounding "meh."
If this series is gonna continue, this is what I'd rather see:
Corniness dialed down a notch (missionaries are you serious what)
Important things that happen, like almost all the good guys getting killed off, happen on-camera and are not vaguely alluded to
And perhaps most importantly:
When it comes to magic, SHIT OR GET OFF THE POT. Two books in, your minds should've already been made up.[/spoiler]
