Just finished the conclusion to this year's story, The Graylands. I loved it. Leif, you wrote another superlative entry into the journal of this mini-saga.
I was captivated throughout the entire chapter. There was a lot of suspense to go along with the wrap-up exposition (I know exposition sometimes has a bad reputation, but I myself have always liked it, particularly as one gets toward the climax; Leif handled this part perfectly). The atmosphere was exactly as it should have been. The buildup of all the forces coming together for the final transaction in the ongoing exchange between good and evil kept me quizzical in terms of how everything was going to turn out.
What I also appreciated was the fact that Leif did not rush through the ending. He made sure to corral enough words to create an appropriately sizeable herd of letters for what has been a great story thus far. We all know endings can be tough to execute, but this chapter made it look easy (which I assure you, it was not; takes work to write something like that). The ending gave the tale the balance it needed. And I have to reiterate: too bad someone out on the west coast didn't have an extra $100 million lying around in a production budget...this would make a memorable reel of moving pictures. Nevertheless, the fact that exists as a short story on my screen is fine enough, because I can obviously make the movie in my mind any time I choose; indeed, my imagination had a ball with Wesson, Lucy, Jerry, etc. And Nebiros the wicked, of course.
Another point to make about the final chapter: the unexpected details created a lot of value to the reader. What a great idea to have Lemmy make an appearance (to the best of my knowledge, he was not mentioned previously; as far as I can tell with another look throughout the story, he was not); he and Garcia went well together. The army from beyond is one heck of a sight to my mind's eye, fleshed out with help from the author. The last lines were satiating, with a humble tone that completed the emotional journey. The entire plot, all the characters, the descriptions, settings, all of it, came together to present a Halloween story that I can honestly say I enjoyed from start to finish; it made the season.
This is also me being honest: I don't know what to say except there were a lot of great lines in the last chapter. I haven't read other comments yet, but even if this wasn't mentioned, I'm sure most will agree that this was such an awesome sentence:
"Tobit massaged the myocardial muscle like he was testing the ripeness of an avocado."
This as well:
"Wesson turned to Rachael and said, “I want to go home now.” She released his hand, and he did." Bittersweet.
There were others, but I won't continue quoting; I invite any one who hasn't done so to read The Graylands.
Thanks to all the authors for writing this.