Another long awaited book in the Big Sigma series has been read and finished. I say “long awaited” like it’s been years since i read book 4 when it’s only been a few months, but a few months feels like a few years because i love this series so much.
Did it match the expectations? Now that’s the question with this book.
From the very beginning of Big Sigma the whole series has been a whole lot of fun, and i’ve always felt that Joseph was having a lot of fun writing it, and that’s what i’ve come to expect. But this book is different. It’s still a good, enjoyable and engaging read, but it’s just not the fun filled Big Sigma that we’re used to, and i think it’s for a good reason. Sometimes in a big story like this there has to come a moment or two of important decisions for one of our favourite likeable/loveable characters where things that have been simmering away for too long are now getting overcooked and need eating. So Lex books the best, most expensive and exclusive restaurant on Operlo for dinner with Michella and the chaos and shenanigans begin: pushing the boundaries of what’s believable and what’s ridiculous but never quite crossing them, while at the same time giving us really wonderful characters to enjoy that are so good you kind of widen those boundaries just because. And that’s what makes this such a great series of books: a writer that is not only willing to push your boundaries to make such exciting and enjoyable stories but is also able to give you such great characters that you’re willing to widen your boundaries as well.
And that ending! Joseph got called a few choice words last night when i finished this book. As Nick Patel would say, “Not many writers have the ‘fortitude’ to end a book like that.” 
And that brings me back full circle. It’s the ending that makes sense of this book, what it’s all been buiding up to and why it doesn’t have that usual Big Sigma vibe to it.
And it certainly leaves one wondering just where this story is going to go from here. I, for one, can’t wait to find out and i’m certainly left looking forward eagerly to book 6? Ooooh yeah!
And as soon as i finished this i engaged the “Infinite Improbability Drive” in “The Pile” and it chose The Crescents, which means that i now have to read the whole of The Book of Deacon series. You see, even the “Infinite Improbability Drive” really likes Joseph’s books — can’t get a better recommendation than that. 
