Endings are always a mixed blessing. We get answers, but we have to leave. Some series, I’ve put off reading the final books because I want to stay in the world a little longer. Some, I have to return to. What began in The Rogue Retrieval and escalated in The Island Deception comes to a boil in The World Awakening, and it was an ending to savor. Dan Koboldt’s Alissia trilogy wraps up in the excellent The World Awakening. Quinn’s journey from Las Vegas through a portal to the medieval world of Alissia is complete, and I’m sad to see it go.

TL;DR: The World Awakening is a satisfying conclusion to the Gateways to Alissia trilogy. I’m sad to see it go but had fun while in country. Highly recommended.

From the publisher:

Quinn Bradley has learned to use the magic of another world. And that world is in danger.

Having decided to betray CASE Global, he can finally reveal his origins to the Enclave and warn them about the company’s imminent invasion. Even if it means alienating Jillaine…and allying with someone he’s always considered his adversary.

But war makes for strange bedfellows, and uniting Alissians against such a powerful enemy will require ancient enmities–as well as more recent antagonisms–to be set aside. The future of their pristine world depends on it.

As Quinn searches for a way to turn the tide, his former CASE Global squad-mates face difficult decisions of their own. For some, it’s a matter of what they’re willing to do to get home. For others, it’s deciding whether they want to go home at all.

Continuing the exciting adventures from The Rogue Retrieval and The Island Deception, The World Awakening is the spellbinding conclusion to the Gateways to Alissia fantasy series from Dan Koboldt.

Reviewing later books in series is difficult without spoilers. So, this is the warning, if you haven’t read The Rogue Retrieval or The Island Deception – and you should – you have been warned.

From book one and on, it’s been clear that Alissia is a place to be protected. Quinn, as he’s grown from stage to real magician has come to see Alissia as a better place than our world. In book three, we see the culmination of his quest. He is in a much different place at the start of this book than when we first met him in The Rogue Retrieval. Quinn has been exposed to a mind-boggling reality, and he’s worked his way from team member to a leader in his own right.

The World Awakening begins an unspecified amount of time after The Island Deception. CASE is shipping forces into Alissia for a showdown with ex-operative Richard Holt. The team is fractured, and the mission keeps changing. The battle for the pristine world of Alissia is set to begin. But the story is character focused, and we follow the team to meet new and old friends. Quinn and co set forth to protect the world, and by the end of the novel, we learn who really is protecting Alissia.

As with the first two novels, The World Awakening covers a lot of geography. Customs and locations change to give the story world depth. Dan built a strong setting for the novels, and our view of it expands again. There are battles, rescues, and a good amount of sailing. Magic, smart mules, and wine. We get history and the secret of the portal itself. Sadly, we also get goodbyes. Not everyone who starts the journey with us makes it to the end. In this novel, the bad guys are treated with compassion and shown to be complex people, not simple enemies for the sake of needing an antagonist. In short, Dan has given us a world to care about.

I’ve been thinking about the world of Alissia since the finish of the novel. In its own way, it’s a series about environmentalism. Richard Holt’s fight to preserve the world of Alissia from the encroaching capitalism of CASE. I liked how even though the people of Alissia are less technologically advanced, the heroes never look at them as anything less than human. The question becomes, are they being exploited to help our world or simply for profit? By the time the cover is closed, that question is answered by the heroes.

The character of Richard Holt is an intriguing one. The first book sets him up as the big bad for the series, but as the story progresses, the roles aren’t so clear. In this final installment, we get answers to the Holt question. For me, the backstory – the reason – that he did what he did came a little too fast. It could have been set up in earlier books, or maybe the earlier setup was just too subtle for me. We’re given reason to believe that he’ll be a dictator as he assumes a very authoritarian role as Valteroni Prime, but at the same time, he excels at delegation. Whiles he is without a doubt the brains behind his operation, he is not the prime mover of his own plans. Pun intended. With the Enclave, we are shown that democracy exists in Alissia, but Holt chose a strong executive power country for his base of operations. What does that say about him? Was it a choice of ego or ease?

Some of the backstory was too rushed in this novel and would have been smoother if set up in the earlier books. The origins of the portal between our world and theirs makes sense. It was the only inevitable explanation, but the circumstances of its creation could have been hinted at in book two. Its origins brought up more questions about the world that I would love to have answered. The portal’s backstory is intriguing. While I would like to know some answers, not knowing gave it a feeling of verisimilitude. There are some mysteries that are lost to time, and as much as we’d like answers, we’re not going to get them.

The World Awakening is a satisfying end to a fun trilogy. It delivers on the promises of the first two books, and though it ends well, it doesn’t spare us, or the characters, harm. Saying goodbye is difficult. For three books, we got to experience the pleasure of the pristine world of Alissia. I, for one, am going to miss it.