Review: Terminus by Peter Clines

I loved the 1st book in this series, 14: the huge mystery, the exploration, the suspense, and the fun characters were all delightful. The big reveal at the end was a bit absurd, but in some ways, it was a fun surprise, and it did resolve the mystery, so it still worked. But it was really the mystery, exploration, suspense, and characters that made the book hard to put down.

I liked the 2nd book in this series, The Fold: more mystery, exploration, suspense, and fun characters, but the reveal was basically the same as the 1st book, equally absurd, but this time, not at all surprising. Moreover, the book spent more time on this reveal than the other stuff, so it wasn’t quite as good.

I skipped the 3rd book in the series and went to this 4th one, Terminus, and at this point, you get the reveal very early on, which is of course no longer a surprise, and most of the book is spent on it. As a result, you lose most of what made the 1st book so special: the mystery, exploration, and suspense. You still have some of that in this book, and you still get some fun characters, but it’s just not the same. The charm was in the unknown, and the gradual discovery of the truth, not in the nitty gritty details of what that truth turned out to be.

Rating: 3 stars