4 out of 5

Similar to Book 3’s The Clan of the Shark, when Dodzi and crew (and the reader) are suddenly subjected to the rules and regulations of a new social group – this time, a mysterious, but massive, cobbled together cluster of literally numbered social classes, tying into the ‘fifteen families’ mythology – Vehlmann veritably flies through slabs of world building that could otherwise have encompassed its own book.  It’s only disappointing because it’s so interesting; the team is shuffled through introductions in what amounts to a montage, prior to be tossed into the proving grounds of the titular Arena.

Once Fabien and Gazzotti get us to that point, though, they take full advantage of the book’s increased page length to tell and show us a wonderfully exciting series of events that, yet again, manages to deepen and extend the world of Alone: giving us enough answers to feel informed; dangling more questions out there.  Characters that initially felt one-beat before – The Master of Knives, Saul – evoke emotions above and beyond their beats, and with the introduction of the possibility of a Big Bad emerging at some point, Fabien inserts a sense of building up to something, just at a point where not doing so might leave us wandering.

I’ve converted from digital to physical formats.  I’m a believer in this series, man.