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3.5 rounded up to 4

I read Pathfinder #1 a couple of weeks ago and really enjoyed it, so I picked up the audio for #2 and #3. Ruins picks where Pathfinder ended. Rigg, Umbo, Param, Loaf, and Olivenko are through the wall and talking to the expendable - Vadesh - for the wall fold they have entered. Turns out he's hiding a lot, but does tell them that all the humans are dead and that there's a fungus in the water that will attach to human faces and that once attached there is no way to remove it that doesn't kill both the fungus and the human. Turns out that Vadesh is a fan of the facemasks and has modified the fungus so that if a human can retain control, the human will benefit greatly from the facemask. A couple of the group end up with them and the benefits are real.

The group then goes to another wall fold where things are very different. This wall fold was permitted to develop technologically (none of the others were). One thing created were sentient mice. The mice have developed beyond what their creators know. Like the expendables, only worse, the mice lie, a lot. Collectively they are smarter than the humans. The humans in this wall fold have some interesting attributes. They also know (don't ask how) that Garden has been destroyed nine times and it may happen again in two years. They hope that Rigg and friends can either prevent the destruction this time or learn enough to prevent it the next time. (Yes, there is a lot of time traveling going on.)

Things get pretty complicated. Umbo twice exists in two bodies in the same place but the two new Umbos are killed before Umbo manages to gain control. Rigg ends up creating another of himself, who doesn't die. Param is killed by the mice but then Rigg and Umbo save her by going back in time to before she's killed and create a new timeline. (Yes, the time travel is confusing.)

This book was not as enjoyable as the first because Rigg, Umbo, and Param turn into pretty typical teenagers with respect to maturity. It is quite annoying; they whine a lot. Umbo in particular spends too much time talking to himself in his head.

Rigg thinks he's discovered the cause of destruction only to find that he just delayed it a very few minutes. As a result, he has to go back in time and undo what he did, which is when there end up being two of him.

While not as good as Pathfinder, #2 was good enough for me to immediately proceed to #3. If nothing else, the 4 stars is deserved by keeping my brain occupied while shoveling snow.