Vasily Mahanenko is a master storyteller. I heard quite a few that were disappointed with the ending of book 5. I just finished it and am strangely content with it. Either he can end the series as is and leave his fans wondering about what happens next or he has a million things he can do with it from here. It reminds me of the ending of Ready Player One. You want a follow up, but even with Way of the Shaman's leaving this bitter sweet ending can be just as well. I do hope he continues this eries on though. I have read the starts of all of his other series and I can for sure tell you all that I am a Mahanenko fan for life. Five Stars on the 5th book!
Well, the Russian versions are up to book 7 I think. Book 6 is definitely out and should be translated this year at some point.
The story was pretty decent. I could have done without the romantic harem aspect of it. It seemed a poor knockoff of of FimbulWinter. If he had started morphing the girls I would have stopped reading entirely. Then the story had alot of WoW aspects to it too. With those 2 themes it was too familiar for me to call it original. He did a good job on the character though and on how that particular class progressed, and I also liked the aspect of the castle ownership. The ending of book 5 was pretty brutal. I can't say I couldn't see that coming. Since book 2 you'd have to be pretty dense to not see this betrayal coming. If it hadn't then there wouldn't be much sense in continuing the series, it would just be more of the same old grind of professions skills.
I could have seen Anastaria betraying him, but then the union quashed that for me. So when what happened happened, I didn't see that coming. Have you read/listened to Ascend Online? I've been wanting to for forever. I've got about 4 hours left of the audio that I will finish tomorrow. I started it yesterday. Up until a couple hours ago, I didn't like it. Am I wrong in thinking that it taking over 8 hours to get my interest is way too freagin' long. I have a list of complaints about it. However, that said, it does seem to be getting better.
I didn't like Ascend either. It was just crap. But.... 8 hours of listening? Man, you have more patience than I did.
I actually liked the ending to book 5, he hinted at it midpoint book 2 and going forward. to me it's 3 books late but worth it. what I DID NOT LIKE was what happened after that, there is a booklet he's selling for that called "the hour of pain" (20 pages) that... well lets just say back peddling as hard as you can is a thing...it's supposed to be an insert between book 5 and 6, if you liked the ending in book 5 (like me) then just those 20 pages will turn you off the series as a whole P.S. I completed the audio for Ascend today oddly! It's a slow starter for sure but honestly I liked it going forward, the antagonist though was a bit forced IMO.
