1. The Game, ★★★★★Each of us is alone and all together, both at the same time. Our greatest strengths emerge from our most difficult moments of weakness. This is the way of the universe, and you are blessed to experience it."
2. Digital Heretic, ★★★★★
3. Interlude-Brandon, ★★★★★
4. Virtual Prophet, ★★★★
5. Shadows, ★★★★
6. Digital Evolution, ★★★
I'll be honest: this wasn't my favorite book in the series. While the detour from Trew in Shadows at this point still hasn't paid dividends for the overall story (other than a glimmer of familiarity with Dawn), it at least was a fast-paced and engaging story. Unfortunately, I found Digital Evolution to be slow, cumbersome, and at times boring - which is interesting considering that Schott has introduced at least four distinct storylines in this book. [b:Digital Evolution|24867676|Digital Evolution (The Game is Life, #6)|Terry Schott|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1436021728s/24867676.jpg|44516614] has a lot of the elements that I love from the series: philosophy, religion, interconnected storylines that peel back like an onion. Quotes that resonate with me deeply and make me think. I feel like this book is a victim of its own ambition and trying to incorporate too much of a great thing. The result is a poorly paced book with most of the "action" in the last 10% that feels like cumbersome exposition for later books. The pacing of this book is particularly jarring considering that it is the sixth book in the series and none of the prior books were paced in this way.
I was disappointed that there were so many threads introduced into the tapestry but none of them had any semblance of a resolution...and on top of that we are left with a giant cliffhanger. Speaking of the cliffhanger, it doesn't make sense. Cooper was blowing up cores and stated to Melissa that he wanted to power down the Sims. His reaction at finding out that he cut of the power and permanently killed everyone makes zero sense given his earlier motivation.
I will continue on with the series because I do think things will tie together, but in reading the synopsis for [b:Cyber|28487790|Cyber (The Game is Life, #7)|Terry Schott|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1452270360s/28487790.jpg|48635091] I am a bit disappointed that we are transitioning to yet another companion piece in yet another world. I'll read as the author intends based on my conversation with him recently, but I am more than a little apprehensive to, yet again, leave a cliffhanger on Tygon/the Dream for a companion tale.
Original 2015 review 3 stars, no review was written
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