If Mark of the Fool 4 was a lot of set up, and it was, book 5 is where all this pays off.

Mark of the Fool 4 started and ended on really strong notes. It was all about Alex Roth coming back to Thameland and ended with a battle that he fought by himself (ok, and with a golem and army of summons but under his own power) showing how much stronger he’d gotten while he was away. But for all that it was quite a fragmented book. It was busy setting up a lot of future plot points and jumping around. I wouldn’t say that Alex was a minority character in the book but it wasn’t all about him this time, as we saw from the perspective of the Heroes, the church and various other characters.

Book 5 goes in completely the opposite direction. We’ve had the set up and now it’s all getting paid off. This book is incredibly focused, maybe more than the others before it. I was reading through it, waiting for the segment I was on to end and for us to get a time skip of some kind and it just didn’t happen. In fact the first half of the book is a single, solid segment and it is great.

The ending is fantastic as well. Alex and his friends have gotten stronger but the enemy has stepped up to meet and overcome him. It ends with a fantastic battle that really got my hyped up.

Not that this book is all about action. The plot is great as well, with several mysteries and secrets threaded through it. The theme of scientific investigation, which has been present throughout the series, is still going strong here, answering some questions and unearthing several more. And the answers to those questions are going to be earth breaking, one way or another.

In short this was a fantastic continuation of the series, leaving you satisfied and looking forward to what happens next.