Books like Little Myth Marker

Skeeve tried to fit into a new neighborhood he recently moved (don't we all?) For this reason he accepted an invitation for a friendly game of Dragon Poker- I will talk about the game itself later. Another reason was that all the people that kept Skeeve out of trouble were otherwise occupied and the guy could not miss the opportunity - to get into the trouble that is. As people familiar with the series know if trouble Skeeve asks trouble Skeeve gets; and a big one too. Sufficient to say he won and one of his IOUs created endless and practically unsolvable problems for him. When I talk about the series I keep saying that its quality declined as it went along. This is the place where it all started. It is still good enough, but not on the level with the first five installments. Where do I start? Skeeve is growing up and not surprisingly growing up is boring. There are some parts of the book where the story just stops and Skeeve or his friends sit down and do some philosophical pondering about life and its meaning. These places really feel like screeching half of the tale. The very last sentence dropped all pretenses of being funny and left Skeeve and the readers sad and confused. This was also the start of Skeeve friends' practically worshiping him as a demigod who Can Do No Wrong - a somewhat undeserved reputation among the people/beings who should know better. This only becomes worse in the following books. I really have to mention Dragon Poker as I promised above. It was referred to as the most complicated card game ever invented and I agree. On the surface it looks like good old Poker with six cards instead of five. However there are modifications for the hands and they are numerous and great. To give an example one of them states something like this, "You have a pair and he has straight, but you sit facing south and his last name contains letter K, so your hand wins". Sufficient to say, I want this game. As I already mentioned this does not mean the book is hopeless; in fact it was good enough for 3.5 stars.