Insight – Jay Boyce

Jade is beyond bed-ridden in our world; she has spent most of her life in a hospital room. At the start of this series (Siphon) she finds herself in another world. It’s a pretty-standard LitRPG world. People get notices telling them that their strength has gone up to 11 or that they can now play the ukulele at the beginner level. But she has a non-standard advantage: She can siphon off a small fraction of other people’s abilities. (The siphonees benefit, so ethical problems are limited.) By the end of book 3 she has super-human abilities across the board.

Book 3 ends on a cliff-hanger, and it’s been a long wait. Worth the wait: If you enjoyed the first three books, you’ll enjoy the fourth. Yes, I enjoyed the first three books considerably. If you enjoy LitRPG - literature set in role-playing-game-style milieus - this is a superior instance. (If you dislike such books, why would you read a review of book 4 in a series? If you’re new to the subgenre, Siphon or the author’s recent Lotus Lake are good places to start.) The series leans heavily towards the wish-fulfillment-fantasy side of the spectrum - but that’s okay.

Insight resolves the cliff-hanger left from book 3. I’d like to see some of the dangling plot threads addressed in a book5, but it would not be unfair for the author to leave us here.