"Grandpa and Grandma Larsen are alive..." which kind of sums up the reason why this book stays in the YA ceiling of goodness for me. Most of the characters have plot armor. It's still a great adventure series re: Indiana Jones, but it's limited by the narrative's unwillingness to friggin kill off characters to make the threats of the demons real.

This book in particular was a lot of loose ends being tied up I felt. The grand infinity war battle wasn't compelling since the threat was almost purely existential at this point. Not for a second was I worried about anybody dying, nor did the threat ever seem particularly "real" (in the scope of a YA fantasy series). The scope got too big (world safety threatened) without the author ever actually being willing to kill anyone. Whereas in the 4th book in Wyrmroost, people were getting KO'd and the "threat" of violence seemed a lot more real.

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