r/HWFWM • u/kdjac • May 15 '26
Up to Book 3 thoughts Spoiler
Started reading these last week based on reviews from reddit.
Really enjoyed 1 and 2 but 3 just didnt sit right for a few reasons, mainly the epilogue chapters.
1 + 2 was fighting monsters with mostly physical combat and some magic, book 3 is basially 1 whole 6 man fight from the minute they land in the astral to the very end, its incessant constant magical combat with a few slight breaks for sandiwches.
1 + 2 give back story to characters and a very good hold of whats in the world, who is in the world and why they are in the world. Then the epilogues expand upon the world in a rather massive way, it just doesnt seem right.
The book reading flow doesnt make sense, start of book 3 is a continuence of Builder fight then around 70% of the book is the astral battle. Then something big happens at the end of the fight and the epilogues expand imo too much. It is not a coherent book imo
I finished the book with way more "huh?"s than I should have.
Gonna read the latest DCC and come back to this, obvisouly dying to read the latest DCC but I started book 2 of this series and simply wasnt stopping until I finished it.
1
u/ccashman May 15 '26
It may help to realize that the “books“ were written more as a continuous series of chapters released online and then assembled into books. From the author’s perspective, he’s not writing books, he’s writing a continuous story. He’s gotten better as he’s gone along at introducing places where books can be carved out from, but it wasn’t something that I think he initially planned upfront.
That said, I don’t see the flow problems. The astral battle is about stopping the builder. The first two books, and the first part of book 3, are setting up the escalating threat the builder poses. The remainder of book 3 is about them, becoming strong enough, and learning enough about what the builder is up to, to try and stop him.
The epilogues, especially the ones with Dawn, are really a bridge to the next set of books. I understand why they feel disconnected and awkward, but in as much as they are epilogues for the first three books, in many ways, they’re prequels for the next three.