The Minus Faction is what won me over to Rick's writing. Feast of Shadows is the same, but more of it.

Thematically, of course, it's very different. Where Minus Faction might be Rick's take on Comic book superheroes, this book is his take on ... what do they call it? Urban fantasy? With a dose of horror, cosmic and otherwise.

With the second part now out, it's easier to understand this as a whole work.

Each course is a relatively self contained story with an overarching connecting plot, and each is told from the perspective of a different character. Consequently, Rick has the freedom to play with different storytelling styles and matches them perfectly to the respective protagonist.

The actual main character, the focal point of the overarching plot, is not each course's protagonist. That makes the entire work a tad less accessible; you have to keep switching out of the comfortable, worn-in pair of shoes into a new pair. However, walking in so many different characters' shoes for a few miles is certainly making for an interesting read.

The last course turns what started as more urban fantasy into a cosmic horror-fantasy epic. It fits the protagonist like a glove, but feels as if the special perspective she brings to the book allows a massively larger world than the other protagonists could even imagine to explode onto the scene. My biggest complaint and compliment here is that the world painted in this course is too large even for the extraordinary length of this part.

But while that feels at times as if Rick simply lost control of his imagination here, he manages to collect all of the important threads from all courses into a truly stunning symphony where, in the end, they form the puzzle pieces to a complete picture.

Other authors would have chosen a simpler setup, and there are good arguments to be made for that. For example, the Wheel of Time series is infamous for spinning off ever more characters and story threads and losing itself completely in that. While it occasionally seems as if Rick might veer in that direction - and apparently he has been battling with that a bit - the end makes it worthwhile. There's something exceedingly satisfying in having been a bit confused, only to realise that no, it actually all makes sense together, it was just too large to easily see.

At the end of the day, Feast of Shadows is darker than your average Fantasy, and heavier due to its structure. But the characters' individual, momentary concerns are convincing and pull you easily through the pages. It's only when setting the book down to ask yourself what it is you're actually reading that this issue raises its head. With both volumes now out, luckily you won't need to have that problem until the very end.

I consider this masterful. One can consider mastery when you avoid issues by understanding how to keep things simple, and that's a choice. But to purposely wade into a complex plot and character arrangement and then pull it off is a different, more daring kind of mastery.

Those are books that explode when handled improperly.