Read Time: 2 Minutes
The fourth and final instalment of the Vigor Mortis series had me feeling excited to see the end while at the same time not wanting to leave the world. I also felt rather perturbed that Jessica Almasy wasn’t returning as the voice of Vita, Penelope, Lark and the rest of the characters. Even as undercooked as the previous audiobook’s narration was, I’d still take that over a narrator change right at the end.
I get it. Things happen, and you can’t always get the person you want. Sometimes this works out – but in this instance, the narrator swap was a huge letdown for me. I’d have much preferred waiting as long as needed and got Almasy than the half-hearted attempt I got.
There was so little distinction between character voices it was hard to keep track of who was who at times. The only reason the voice change could even slightly work was that Vita was in a new body, which would have its own voice. But the lack of any real distinctness in any of the voices made for a hard time of it.
The story itself was enjoyable and a nice bow to the light-hearted existential terror I’d come to enjoy. Vita’s power has continued to grow unabated throughout the series, so the ending suited the buildup. No longer the starving orphan girl living on the street, her ascendancy to a god-like tentacle monster is all but complete. But first, a quick stop becoming a princess of the murderous bug monsters that have been dropped on her home world every few months.
Penelope the biomancer intent on turning herself into an immortal dragon continues getting ridiculously stronger and more focused on her life goals. While I wasn’t a fan of her character at first, I love what her character has become. Totally insane yet focused on the greater good for the people.
We also get a lot of loose ends tied up, like how the various worlds in orbit of the all-powerful Mistwatcher came to be which I thought was quite interesting. Seeing just how old Misty got so titanically large was particularly interesting for me.
All in all, a great ending to the Vigor Mortis series let down by the change in narrator. If we’d gotten someone who could have put a little more effort into the voices then perhaps I wouldn’t be criticizing it so much, but it’s what we got. I’ll definitely listen to the whole series again, even knowing the final instalment narration won’t be on par.