Item - The Dusk of Eternal Night (collector's edition)

Back when Storms of Chai came out, I remember being more impressed that it was starting an ongoing arc than the actual quality of the adventure. The series had been meandering from one evil plot to thwart to another for a while, which was getting really disappointing considering the hook of Lone Wolf was that it could be read as one ongoing epic saga. That'd been forgotten more or less since The Masters of Darkness.

But the arc represented by these last few books has been tense, immersive, and makes use of a plot point it's been teasing for almost the entire series: the return of Darklord Vashna, one of the ultimate evils of the setting, and the potential of the player finally getting to see how tough he really is now that he's back. I admit to being a little less jazzed that the two big villains from the Grey Star books are featured prominently too, since it ends up making his adventure seem like it was all for nothing. The makers of Kamen Rider Agito were onto something.

Still, the combination of two legendary evils does serve to make the experience feel like a genuine race against time, where only the player has a slim chance of saving the world. The book starts with a frenetic military skirmish, then switches to going on a desperate quest to find some scant clue on how to stand up to the legendary evildoers pitted against you. It even gives the player a chance to spend time with their companions during the travel interval, instead of skipping over that to get back to the action as quickly as possible.

And whatever it might say about me, when the final boss battle came and a ray of godlight pierced the clouds and automatically elevated my Kai Lord to Supreme Master, I heard Stan Bush start belting out "The Touch". When the fight was over I imagined the Kai Lord leading his diverse allies in a chant of "Till all are one!"

This book was an awesome experience, and after growing up with this series, I can't wait to see the last book that finally finishes it up.

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