This is pretty bad. As the review title indicates, I don't really consider this a proper story. It has paper-thin characters acting out a plotline designed to give the author an excuse to spout out his diatribes against invasion of privacy. Especially Michael is hit hard by this, joining the Tabula for reasons never really explained. The morality of the characters is too black and white: none of the Tabula members is just misguided, they're all cackling villains.
The concept of Travelers and Realms seems cool, but really doesn't add anything to the story. It creates conflict by giving the villains a reason to go after the heroes, but it's completely unclear how their experiences of other Realms bestow wisdom on the Travelers. What possible insights could a person gain from visits to a cartoon world like the second realm, where grocery stores are filled with empty boxes? Or the first world, which is locked in perpetual conflict for unknown reasons? The only one I actually liked was the sixth realm of the gods - many readers considered it to be pointless, but I thought it was the only profound passage in the entire trilogy.
Too much is left unresolved, especially concerning the machinations of the fifth realm. What were they hoping to accomplish and why? And while I can appreciate not wrapping everything up too neatly, it seems to me that the story just... stops. WITH A SPEECH, of all things. That right there should tell you everything you need to know.
The review quotes on the cover should give an indication of just how empty and unoriginal this work is. It's constantly compared to 1984, The Da Vinci Code, The Matrix, the works of Philip Pullman (His Dark Materials I suppose, because of the dimension-hopping), but apparently can't stand on its own.
A manifesto masquerading as a thriller masquerading as fantasy story
This is pretty bad. As the review title indicates, I don't really consider this a proper story. It has paper-thin characters acting out a plotline designed to give the author an excuse to spout out his diatribes against invasion of privacy. Especially Michael is hit hard by this, joining the Tabula for reasons never really explained. The morality of the characters is too black and white: none of the Tabula members is just misguided, they're all cackling villains.
The concept of Travelers and Realms seems cool, but really doesn't add anything to the story. It creates conflict by giving the villains a reason to go after the heroes, but it's completely unclear how their experiences of other Realms bestow wisdom on the Travelers. What possible insights could a person gain from visits to a cartoon world like the second realm, where grocery stores are filled with empty boxes? Or the first world, which is locked in perpetual conflict for unknown reasons? The only one I actually liked was the sixth realm of the gods - many readers considered it to be pointless, but I thought it was the only profound passage in the entire trilogy.
Too much is left unresolved, especially concerning the machinations of the fifth realm. What were they hoping to accomplish and why? And while I can appreciate not wrapping everything up too neatly, it seems to me that the story just... stops. WITH A SPEECH, of all things. That right there should tell you everything you need to know.
The review quotes on the cover should give an indication of just how empty and unoriginal this work is. It's constantly compared to 1984, The Da Vinci Code, The Matrix, the works of Philip Pullman (His Dark Materials I suppose, because of the dimension-hopping), but apparently can't stand on its own.