You know how some authors throw out a 3 book series of 120 page books, then chuck in a "3.5" 30 page short story just to get you to cough up another fiver?

Well. This feels a bit like that to start with, the volume is slimmer than its predecessors (each of the previous 3 actually increased in length). I wondered where it would go, toward the beginning, especially when our main man was laid low.

I shouldn't have been concerned, though - kay has concocted a superb morality story and given us a view into something only lightly passed over earlier-on in the time line. I really got into it.