A review by d_audy
The River of Souls by Robert R. McCammon, Vincent Chong

adventurous dark emotional funny mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.25

The adventures of Matthew Corbett continue with a mission with a smaller scope that suffers just a little bit from the comparison to the large scope fireworks that was the previous entry The Providence Rider, yet remains a very entertaining story full of everything that has made this series so enjoyable and delectable so far, only in smaller dosage.   Set mostly over a few days around Charles Town in the summer of 1703, The River of Souls feels almost like a stand alone mystery with a new secondary cast (however as colourful as usual in this series, Magnus especially is fun), but it certainly relies heavily on the legacy and developments from previous entries and through the reappearances of a few figures from the past it manages to set the stage for the next step of what has become the "main story arc" of the series.  All in all, a slightly inferior entry after four stellar volumes, but mostly because it feels a lot like a transitional story which maybe could have been a long novella rather than the new full episode of Matthew's journey.  However, a series can't all be Providence Riders, which took the better part of two books to set up, and The River of Souls similarly seems to put in place then first pieces of the new game.