I am teetering between 3.75 and 4 stars on this. I have conflicting feelings but overall this is a great book.

Firstly, I need to address the length. I borrowed this from the library through Libby and this is the “extended edition,” clocking in at over 2,000 pages based on my font settings. I’m not sure if this length is really earned, but at the same time I struggle with how I personally would have broken things up. The story is really well maintained and I can’t really see any point where a break would make sense for a Pt. 1 / Pt. 2 scenario.

Part of the reasoning behind the book being so long is that there are just so many characters to keep track of. Between the “good guys” and the “bad guys” and anyone falling in between there are so many names flying around at several points I had to refer to a (spoiler free) character sheet in order to keep track of it all. I think the character list could have been whittled down and the core of the story would have remained the same. BUT AGAIN! Conflicted as it also does really help to flesh out the world. 

The actual plot was great, though of course I have nitpicks, particularly with the women (Steve I need you to just. Stop everything you are doing with your women characters and start over.) I definitely found myself more invested with the activities of the “good guy” grouping, which is likely intentional, but it made reading through the Las Vegas sections a bit of a chore at times. 

Despite the length, I was overall very invested in the story progression and enjoyed my time with the book. After writing this all out I’m going to stick to a 4 star on this. It was great.