Finished the fourth of the original MtG novels,
The Final Sacrifice by Clayton Emery, at brunch a few minutes ago. Was kind of surprised that, after the strong connections back to book 1,
Arena, in the previous entry, those connections were totally ignored even when the protagonists could have desperately needed them.
Overall, though, I thought the book worked well. Without going into spoilers, it tied more strongly back to the Brothers' War (which will eventually, and naturally, become the foundation of the new continuity later), and featured a lot of tactical fighting as every surviving antagonist (and some new ones from fights between books) returned in a (somewhat forced) team to fight the main characters and their wandering army. Lots of small-scale and large-scale action. All ongoing plotlines (such as they are, since really there aren't many) are tied up. The grim-grey tone returns, toned down a bit but still with random protagonist deaths of secondary characters whom the author took a little time to establish -- which is a nice touch as always. The typesetter, however, and/or the author, forgot to add extra carriage returns or small section breaks within chapters to signal when the scene had substantially changed, often with timeskips. I kept being janked out of the story whenever this happened, even though recognizing the real problem I could adjust for it.
The overarching plot technically continues at the end, with the protagonist army still positioned to keep hunting and leashing selfish wizards, now more effectively than ever; but my vague impression from studying the subsequent book plots (and whether any of them should be tried later when the continuity reboots) is that this plot will be dropped in favor of standalone entries that never, or only with trivial rareness, will call back to what's going on here. That will be annoying if true, but it's understandable and I think I'll have an easier time swallowing it if I'm prepared for the plot-disjunction.
Anyway, a new story for Book 5 to come! -- and I'll report on whether the back cover art has finally advanced!
