Books like The Warlock Heretical

This is 3 1/2 stars. The main issue in this book was dealt with by the author in part in other novels, but the separation between church and state is the paramount, and only issue in this one. This is actually a short story dragged out due to the slow effect each proclamation from the brainwashed Abbot is described in large detail throughout the community of Graymere. The major difference between this novel and all the previous ones is that in the end, Rod finally gets his man. At the end we have a captured futurist that is finally identified by Rob prior to the confrontation scene at the end, and both neutralized and immobilized. The actual antagonist is caught red handed, but we never get to the interrogation stage, which I must assume is in the first few scenes of the next novel, an actual cliffhanger, when compared with the “happy” endings of all the prior novels. I felt jipped, but not by the lack of violence and prevention of the civil war once again, but by the book ending prematurely. At this point I’m growing tired about the futurists being unknown and trying every scheme to turn Graymere into a totalitarian state. I am hopeful that the upcoming novels are Rod getting proactive vs the scheming futurists rather than just reacting and applying band-aids to Graymere civilization. Seriously, if they have possession of a time machine, they can just kill Rod at the right moment of vulnerability, like when he’s in the bathroom or something simple like that. In any event, I am hopeful that Rod goes proactive in eliminating the source of threats to Graymere so we can all finally go home. Onward.