Leven Thumps and the Gateway to Foo by Obert Skye

The ingenious twists and distinctive prose that animated the opener have turned into self-indulgence.

Despite ten pages of notes at the end, readers who haven’t been following Leven’s adventure from the beginning will flounder-and most likely end up not really caring what happens one way or the other. Whether or not that would be a good thing, and whose side Geth and other major players are actually on, becomes anybody’s guess as armies gather, a major island collapses and sinks into the sea with excruciating slowness and the point-of-view shifts with suspense-destroying frequency so that side characters can check in with some inscrutable action or discovery. Meanwhile, allies Geth and Winter go another to discover that the dream land of Foo is aboil with plans to break down the barrier that separates it from Reality, and to revive something called the Dearth. Slowing the pace to a drawn-out ramble and stuffing the multiple plot lines with more additions to an already bewilderingly large cast, he sends stodgy Leven and his never-serious sidekick Clover one way, toward the mysterious sage known as the Want. Skye continues to squander the promise of Leven Thumps and the Gateway to Foo (2005) in this third of a projected four volumes.

Leven Thumps and the Gateway to Foo by Obert Skye