Devil's Engine, by Mark Summer
3.5 Stars
12-30-2018

The same, but different. The narrative advances a few years, and rather than a young buck trying to complete his heroes journey, we now have a Sheriff trying to preserve his family and his town in a changing world. The structure of the book is also a little more fancy, as it has a _Time Traveler's Wife_ situation going on. This was both a weakness and a strength. A weakness in terms of the frequent deus-ex-machina, as the Traveler shows up to arrange or save pieces on the board. It's a bit like how in LoTR, Gandalf or some Eagles or some other bullshit is always showing up to save the day, and it drains tension/immersion from the story. The Traveler is a strength though in that it pays off in some surprisingly sweet ways later on in the story. What else. The ending wasn't quite as good, a few of the key events from the first book are swept under the rug, and the author to continues to be unable to decide if prostitution is a terrible fate or a fine profession. Despite those minor problems, the writing, pacing, plotting, and world building were all better than par.