The Four Legendary Kingdoms | a Review
originally published on 25/04/2022;
Hello, people, I am G.E.M.Simov, a creature from the old times, here to spread every single conspiracy theory under the sun. I will do so through the medium of this review, which will take a look at: Matt Riley's "The Four Legendary Kingdoms"
I will review this book in the following fashion:
I'll be rating it on a 10/10 scale, with 3 points awarded per category, of which there will be three, and a final point that I will give out if I found the book touching in some sense. The three categories are: "Content", "Richness of Expression" and "Story".
Content
I need to preface this by saying two things:
- I read a translation of this book. The translation itself was not bad, but it was not excellent, either. That could stem from either the fact that the translator sucked, or the fact that the book, itself, sucked, and that no matter how skillfully the translator tried to pretty it up, a piece of poop remains a piece of poop.
- There was no indication that this was a part of a series. Nothing on the cover indicated that - there was no name of the 'series', there was no statement pertaining to which part of a series this was on the back, there was no tiny number on the side. The only indication could have been the claim that "Jack West returns!".
Additionally, one could think that the name itself contains the secret. "The FOUR legendary kingdoms". Four - is that there because this is the fourth book in a series? Unfortunately, no, because the preceding book in the series is called: "The Five Greatest Warriors" and the following book in the series is called: "The Three Secret Cities".
That is bad.
This book was gifted to me by somebody, and I read it in a day (~380 pages are nothing for yours truly). I read it years after it was gifted to me, so I do not even remember who it was that presented me with this piece of thriller fiction. That doesn't matter, but the thing is - the people who would gift me things would have an idea of what literature I enjoy most. That would be fantasy stuff.
The cover of this book, along with the title and the blurb on the back, suggest that this is a fantasy book. After all, let's see if there's any mention of stuff that might indicate this isn't a stereotypical fantasy book:
"Top-secret military base"; "Conspiracy theory"; "Kings of Thriller"
And that's all. Notice, however, that these two things are not exclusive to modernity. Conspiracies, and theories, as well as conspiracy theories were present in the past (The Three Musketeers). There are many such instances in fantasy novels, too, and I needn't name any, but let's throw the "Song of Ice and Fire" series in there.
Top-secret military bases are a bit more likely to be exclusive to modernity, but we need only look at Isengard in "The Lord of the Rings". It is, essentially, transformed into a top-secret military base, by Saruman. So we have that in fantasy, too, although it could clue us in on the fact that this book is not, actually, a medieval fantasy.
THEN, well, we take a look at the cover's art. By looking at it, it's more than evident that this is fantasy. Symbols, ancient ones, carved out of stone or made out of mosaics, with crests and motifs more in tune with ancient civilization or medieval aristocracy than modernity. The visual indication points towards fantasy.
The name, too, points towards fantasy, because "Legendary Kingdoms" is definitely a modern tale. Legendary, mythical - these convey a certain expectation. You don't really have these in modernity. You might have ancient, you might have fabled… I don't think this suggests the contents of the book as it should. Or, at the very least, it builds up an expectation of what the book will be, and then it turns out not to be that. I think that's an issue.
But, well, it might not be needed. I suppose taking a look at the "Kings of Thriller" slogan could clue you in with absolute certainty that this is going to be a story, a 'thriller', set in the current day's world, or the very recent past… I'd say the cover, while quite interesting on its own, is very misleading. Maybe even inappropriate.
But, let's not focus on that, exclusively. The Content category ought to look at a number of things. The first page of the book lists three 'titles', all under the title of the book itself. With knowledge that I gleaned from the internet, after reading the book, I now know those are the names of the preceding books in the series. Again, though - no explicit indication that this is a part of a series.
Then, there is a disclaimer. Everything in this book is either a fruit of the author's imagination, or, if it does exist in reality, is used for fictitious means. It's not REAL!
That piqued my interest, and I got a little suspicious. In reality, I had quickly glanced through the pages of the book and found two intriguing things that had clued me in on the true nature of it, but this was a true confirmation that things were of a certain variety. This was what truly confirmed the story was not a medieval/ancient fantasy, but a modern day thriller.
An interesting thing pertaining to this book - it is split into chapters, but the manner of the split is very weird. That's owed up to the fact that some of the chapters warrant a new page, while others simply act as tiny splits in between the paragraphs. Some chapters are preceded by quotes from famous individuals, others are not. The names of the chapters, too, are a little strange. Some seem connected to the story of the book, others don't. An example would be the first chapter, which is titled: "The First Trial Entry into Hell", and a chapter that comes quite quickly after, called: "The girl named Lily Part Five", then there's "Secret History I", and so on and so on.
This serves as a means of separating certain parts of the story, creating an expectation in the reader of 'what is about to come' but they're really nonsensical to me. There's barely a numeration to the chapters, and there's no table of contents at the end or start of the book which can be used as a means of informing the reader that Chapter X starts at page Y. That's a little qualm I've got with the book, but the chapters and the expectation created by them are a big one… I'd say.
See, there's "Trial" chapters, focusing on the action involving the main character, and then there's "Secret History" chapters, which, at first I thought, involve the main character getting an opportunity to wind down, which in turn lessens the tension for the reader. However, the second "Secret History" chapter introduced a new subplot, which was incredibly distant from what was happening to the main character and the tension the reader was meant to be experiencing.
While it does serve in de-escalating the tension, much of the time it shows the reader some of the side characters uncovering information already known to the reader, and them uncovering it in a relatively detailed manner, which seems tautological and pointless to me. Sure, the tension drops entirely in these moments, but so little tension, and so little newness, risks boring the reader.
Then there's the matter of the other type of chapter, which is incredibly strange. Some of those go on for as little as a page, while others sprawl over thirty pages. Sometimes, these chapters serve as a means of repositioning the viewpoint, switching form one character to another, but then, other times, they aren't possessive of that function. If anything, they seem like the titles of episodes from very short form shows, or as means of showcasing the location in which the events of the chapter are taking place, or as means of explaining what is going to be happening in the chapter, but then there's no consistency to this, no system.
I'll say it's very weird.
Then, the quotes preceding the big chapters. Those are always tightly bound to the content of the chapters, as if these historical figures have left their comments in relation TO the story. This, again, seems a bit strange to me, as it cuts into the story and almost entirely takes the reader out of it, but the key is that it 'almost' happens. The connectedness between the quotes and the story manage to keep these pointless additions not wholly inappropriate. Another reason as to why they somewhat fit is due to the story, and due to the fact that all these big individuals are, most definitely, connected to the conspiracy.
The fact that it kinda works doesn't excuse the weirdness of it, but there are other strangenesses to the content, too.
There's a vast number of pictures in this book, and the weirdest thing is that these pictures seem to be utterly pointless, as everything depicted upon them gets described in great detail, through the use of the text. I was under the impression that having these pictures would mean that the author would focus on the action, but he still describes everything in enough detail so as to allow the reader to visualize these things (be they locations or objects) and navigate them through the movements of the characters. It's tautological, again. We've got the picture on the page, and then we spend the next page describing the picture. Then we go ahead and do our thing.
Again - this is weird. It's not bad, but it's not done well, either, so it's just there. There are moments when it really helps, but then there are also moments when it's beyond pointless. In fact, there's a point at which it is actively harmful. There's a graphic that displays the names of alive and dead characters, and one of the characters is displayed as dead… But he's alive. He's displayed as dead in a MULTITUDE of graphics, but he's alive way past the last appearance of one of those graphics. He doesn't even have a moment where he almost died or feigns his death, no, he's perfectly fine. It's insanely weird.
Lastly, the content of the book, or the story, itself. There's a lot of it. A very large amount of it, frankly. Most of it is stupid, naturally, but there's a lot of content. And, also, a lot of it is totally needless. This could go to the story, and it will do that, but the problem comes from an incredible reliance on acronyms, many of which do not get clarified. If it's integral that the reader doesn't know what that acronym means, okay, but if it isn't - let the reader know. A little star and then, under the text, a short explanation. I was utterly lost, at a certain point, when there were so many of those that there seemed to be a new one in every sentence. That cools down a bit, but then it gets swapped out for the names of military equipment. I don't care that you're telling me what the exact model of the weapon is, I want you to describe it to me! Writing!
Other problems - when there's needless exposition. The most egregious part is, again, related to military equipment. The main character obtains an item that has a certain function. Instead of that, and a visual description of the item, being all the reader gets (as it is all the reader needs), the author decides to go into detail on how this item is a knock-off of another item, which item is very difficult to make, but then those fellows who made the knock-off managed to do it either way, and it works, a bit worse than the original, but that never comes into play, so it's pointless to provide that information to me.
It doesn't even serve the purpose of showcasing how aware of things the main character is, because he is already shown to be aware of everything military related, but it happens a few more times. The big conspiracy that controls all the money in the world and everything in it has access to weapon X, which is super rare and expensive and only made in Y country. Well, guess the conspiracy is just that massive, har-har! The reader is already aware of that, due to the situation the character has found himself in. There's no point in reiterating just how influential the 'shadow government' is, all that's needed is to tell the reader that, hey, they caused the world wars and every big tragedy and every scary thing, and there's no need to tell us, again and again, that the conspiracy runs deep. The reader gets it the first time.
Now, another problem that I have with this is that, for some ungodly reason, it seems to mirror reality in an unpleasant manner, in the worst ways. I can see an ideology being propagated throughout this book, be it in an unconscious manner or a conscious one. Not only does this ideology seem to fit in with the ideals of 'the bad guys', but it appears to be wielded by the good guys, as well. That leaves me wondering, but I'll leave those up to the last category.
For this one, I'll make my judgment. I did not like the fact that I couldn't tell this was what it was. I do not like the fact that I could not tell it was one of many. I do not like the fact that some things were done in a certain way. As a result, I am not too pleased. 2/3
Richness of Expression
"What is this category?", you might ask, and I will answer - it is the number of times the author used a thesaurus. It is also the number of times the author said something in a manner I found very interesting or appealing. Unfortunately, this novel seems to lack those.
While reading through "The Four Legendary Kingdoms", I was not impressed. Not only was the language that I found myself taking in very simple - which is, inherently, a good thing - it was also quite plain. There were no spices, and what applications of flavor there were, they were out of hand and inappropriate. What does that mean?
Well, this book is written in a manner that suggests the author either had the idea of making it accessible to everybody, or his own dictionary, the one housed in his head, the lexicon, if you will, is quite barren. I think that it is, most likely, the former, as thrillers have this 'quality' to them, being accessible and treated as 'low brow'. However, therein hides the problem. If everything is as digestible as possible, and lacks any curious implementations of the English language, then nothing is going to stand out as impressive.
That's my issue. Whereas there are pieces of literature that manage to bring about incredible lines of dialogue, action or description, which leave you truly impressed, which posses such great meaning to them that you might need to read them a multitude of times to decipher it, this… Well, this book doesn't have that. It is simple, as previously stated.
But do not mistake simple with bad, nor bad with simple. Bad books have been written, and they are inexplicably complex. Phenomenal works have been created, and they are simple enough to be read by a child barely capable of performing that feat. Simplicity wields its own kind of strength, and some simpler works can be outstanding. Others, well… Others are like "The Four Legendary Kingdoms", wherein the most impressive use of language was the accuracy with which spaces were described.
That's not bad - not at all - but when the subject matter presents an opportunity for so much more, well… That's when we end up having a problem. As mentioned, this book does one thing well, but only sometimes. Spatial descriptions, especially adjectives, are well utilized in some cases.
The other redeeming quality would be the use of the word 'tetragamadion'. Funky word.
Everything else about this book's eloquence was very ordinary. So ordinary, in fact, that I actively found myself disappointed. The only reason I can write this review is because I've got the book by my side, as not a single sentence has remained in my head. 1/3
Story
I will spoil this book. It is not something incredible, and the ending is almost recognizable from the very start, but I will admit that it was not what I expected. So,
Jonathan West Junior, who gets called Jack for some inexplicable reason - could Matthew be an alias for Joe Biden? He likes talking about Jack. To Jack… I digress.
Jack West, the main character (MC) is abducted and forced to take part in 'the Great Games', which prove to be unbelievably bloody from the very beginning and turn out to be organized by the shadow government that's been running the world for THOUSANDS of years, all with the help of knowledge left behind by some kind of aliens.
These Games turn out to be the fourth iteration of the Great Games, which are performed in the Underworld, actually India, ruled by Hades, some french billionaire, handled by Minotaurs, who are actually surviving, purebred Neanderthals. Imagine my shock, and then MC's.
That's not all. In addition to these Great Games, there's a massive galaxy, many times bigger than the Milky Way, moving towards Earth at twenty (or so) times the speed of light. On top of that, MC's family (adoptive child, dogs and two friends) are held as hostages, which means that, if he fails, they die. What a set of circumstances!
But Matthew isn't done yet. Every other participant in the games, save for 2 fellas, has been aware of the Games for a decently long time and has been preparing. MC was kidnapped, and he doesn't even know what's going on!
That's a lot of odds stacked against the MC, but because he is LITERALLY the fifth MOST CAPABLE WARRIOR TO HAVE EVER LIVED, it's all K. No, unironically, that's how it's explained in the book - well, I found Jesus' corpse, and he was one of the previous four greatest warriors, and then something something and I was named the fifth greatest warrior. No idea how that came to be, but it did.
Anyway, after MC displays inhuman proficiency with anything he gets his hands on, he goes on to 'barely make it' through a few trials in the great games, after which he finds out all the hostages are going to be killed, because there would be no future need for them. That kicks him into gear, he absolutely obliterates the competition, frees the hostages and allows himself to get caught by the Minotaurs, because he has to finish the fight. Why? Well, turns out his adoptive daughter, who was a hostage, was actually some incredibly pure blooded descendant of the oracle of Siwa. Who's that? Well, we don't know, but it's really important, and the previous books have, apparently, revolved around it. Either way, that girl, Lily, was allowed to attend the banquets of the hyper Illuminati and thus was not freed in MC's maneuver.
While all that is happening, two if his friends and his mom, who is the best history person in the world, are looking for him and happen to find the place that could be his location.
Following the befriending of the other abductee, MC wins the games with his knowledge of the myth of Hercules (Heracles in this). Now, here's where the ending didn't go the way I thought it would - and, frankly, I didn't know how it would go.
After all, a story about a hyper Illuminati government (the four 'legendary' kingdoms) suggests that there's going to be no escape for the MC, because the bad guys control the entire world. Now, I was more than certain that he was going to win the Great Games - because of the way the book set him up, as literally the greatest warrior alive with so much experience that him losing was going to be a plot-hole in and of itself - but I had no suppositions as to what would happen next. Well, it is hinted at.
In the third trial, MC saves one of the Minotaurs (Neanderthals). A bit after that, he is summoned by the king of Minotaurs, who asks why, and MC says: "Cuz you're people." The Minotaur king then shares a lot of information that probably should not have been shared and tells MC that the Minotaurs are with him.
Then, before MC frees the hostages, one of said hostages finds out that the sons of Hades want to kill him and usurp the throne. That character had accompanied MC to meet the king of Minotaurs, and he knows what the Minotaur king shared. And that's some good intel.
Finally, right after the end of the great games, the hostages come back to help MC, alongside MC's mom and his two friends. They tell the Minotaur king of the plan that the sons of Hades have - which will take place after the end of the great games - and so the Minotaurs go crazy and siege the 'arena'.
That was the most impressively good thing about the entirety of the story. These common people, who had been doing exclusively hard labor and had been cannon fodder for the games, rose up against their oppressors in the face of a perceived injustice. I really liked that, even though there's good reason for me to dislike it as well.
See, it's the equivalent of the peoples of a country storming the presidency because the president could have passed his power onto someone else, and that someone else could be incredibly bad for the peoples. A correlation between real life events is neither intentional nor a good thing, because this book was published in 2016 by an Australian, but it exists and I despise it. I doubt the need to elaborate further, but we should all be aware of the fact that acting, based on suppositions, is a very bad idea, especially if it involves… You know, siege-ing a government building that holds a seat of power.
Another thing that I really liked was Hades. Now, he was an aristocrat, one of the four kings, one of the folks running the super Illuminati. But, well, he was dedicated to his duties and to upholding the rules. Due to the fact he was king of the Underworld, where the great games are held, his entire life was spent in preparation to hold these games, if the situation required it. That meant that he was really disconnected from the political aspect of the four legendary kingdoms, as I understand it, and he did not seek power.
In addition to that, the means of winning the games required a demonstration of knowledge. Knowledge of tradition, in a sense, of the rules that needed to be followed. When the MC won the games, and even prior to that, by announcing he had figured out what the meme pertaining to the games was, he had earned, in a sense, Hades' respect.
Then, shit hits the fan, Minotaurs go ham, so on and so forth. The plans fall apart, Hades - who was left with the impression that humanity was worthy of existing (which was what the games were meant to prove) - is decimated, at which point MC tells him that it would not have been right to do things that way. Putting his money on the fact that Hades honors the rules and what is right by the laws above all else, MC wins the bet. Hades joins him!
Now… Well, even though I said all those nice things about the story, I'm afraid there aren't exclusively good things about it. There are a few plot-twists which were also pretty good, but there was nothing truly mind-blowing. However, here are the issues…
First, it seems as though all the characters are super capable, even overqualified for what they're doing. Especially MC. One would expect that the guy who is the ultimate warrior (essentially) is not going to also be the smartest man in the world, but it sure does seem as though he's beyond the scope of any other intellect to be presented in the story. Every single fight he ends up in, he almost always wins, and, if not, he gets off without suffering great injuries. In fact, any injuries he does suffer don't seem to affect him at all, which is even more impressive (in a bad sense).
Then, there's Lily, his adoptive daughter. She gets a number of opportunities to do naughty things, and she does said naughty things immaculately. First, she breaks the rules, in front of Hades, and does not get penalized for it. Either that's incredibly out of character, or Hades places unbelievable value on her bloodline. Second, she gets an opportunity to do SOMETHING, after being told by her father, in a previous instance of them speaking, to do something. Well, what's the thing she does? She steals a remote.
A remote that has, so far, not been mentioned as being housed in a loose pocket, but, rather, in the HAND of one of the villains. Well, somehow, she manages to perfectly pickpocket the remote, totally unseen, and then she manages to, while being totally unseen still, get rid of IT and its batteries in different manners.
Now, the latter is more believable, but the former is absolutely ludicrous. That is not all, however. The MC's mother, Mae, us the best historian in the world. So good, in fact, that she ALREADY KNOWS about the four legendary kingdoms, and in a single day (essentially) she finds out everything she needed to know about this HYPER SECRETIVE ULTRA ILLUMNIATI, with the help of two goons who don't know anything about the four legendary kingdoms.
That's not all there's to it, but that's the gist of it. Everyone is incredibly capable. Everyone is exceptional beyond description. That's… Well, it takes away, somehow. There's no true moment of struggle, there's no point at which the character must push himself out of the mud, there's no moment at which things don't go as they should, and then the character needs to deal with the consequences.
The character doesn't grow, either. He is, essentially, a finished character, which in an of itself isn't bad, but every other character also seems to go through no character development, at all. They all start at a point and end at the same point, with the exception of, maybe, Hades and another fellow, Ioanthe, though in the latter's case it seems barely deserved, due to the fact that she's interacted with MC in the previous books, a lot.
There's a very evident lack of humanity in all the villains, even if they are all human. That lack of humanity, I perceive, and it might not be present for other readers, but it is very much beyond me. On the one hand, yes, I can understand that a person would be able to consider himself fundamentally better than another, purely based off of the fact that he has 'blue blood'. On the other, I can't imagine how a person like that can spend their entire life believing they are correct, without ever facing any adversity in the marketplace of ideas.
Maybe I see too much good in humanity as a concept and wish to believe that all of mankind is capable of considering their ideas flawed, but this doesn't seem right. Maybe I am forgetting the fact that there are actual recipients of inter-generational wealth in the billions, who live in tightly knit circles of other such people and perceive themselves as better than other simply because of they way they were born. In any case, this seems wrong to me, almost as though these human characters aren't behaving like humans would. That makes me dislike the way they do things, the way they think, as I can't attribute it to a rational human being. Alas, that might be me.
Now, here's the thing that bothered me most, the thing I perceived as most dreadful in this whole experience. There's a scene wherein a character, Sky Monster, who's a good friend of MC, perceived himself as weighing the MC down. That comes following a situation in which Sky Monster saved the MC.
What's the problem here? Well, here's the issue I perceive. The trial begins and everyone who is competing is cuffed to one of the hostages precious to them. MC is cuffed to Sky Monster. The trial required that they rush through a small army of Minotaurs, avoid rolling steel balls, 2 meters wide, manage to not get soaked in the equivalent of lava, and get to a certain location. Sky Monster is tall and overweight, which immediately puts the two of them at a disadvantage.
Sky profusely apologizes, recognizing that his weight could be the death of MC. MC tells him not to worry about it and they keep going. Then, a situation arises in which the only reason MC doesn't just die is Sky Monster's size and weight.
Here we have a presumed weakness, a problem, and a question of whether that person is worthy. An estimation of self worth on the part of Sky Monster, who compares himself to MC, a fit man, who is capable of everything. Sky Monster recognizes that he is not as capable, and places the value of his own self to be very low. So low, in fact, that it is none whatsoever, due to the fact that he is so weak, in the sense that he has not the agility required to succeed at the task.
Then, we get a moment that tests Sky Monster, it assesses his value, his worth. He passed, succeeding in saving his friend. That's a cathartic moment, where he receives great self affirmation, he discovers that he has value, in a sense. It's almost character development… And then, a bit later, he just tells MC that he's useless, that he's only weighing him down and that they aren't going to make it together.
As if the value of his being has, once again, dropped down incredibly. So little value he feels as though he has, that, after throwing himself at a spinning, 2 meter wide steel ball, managing to break the cuffs and maims himself, he says that MC has always been special. Yes, of course, the MC is special… But Sky Monster is, apparently, just an ordinary pilot. Nevermind the fact that he is, up till that point, built up as an incredibly capable pilot (in this and previous books), nevermind the fact that now that they're separated they can run at their own pace, nevermind that all.
The MC is SPECIAL. As a by the way, he's, apparently, a part of a prophecy, so here's some more determinism. The MC is SPECIAL, and Sky Monster is just an ordinary pilot. He says his life would be worth something if he can save the MC, and urges him to leave and save himself.
Now, this action is entirely understandable, but not for the reasons listed by monster. Getting rid of the cuffs is going to help them tremendously, and it also means that MC can do his GREATEST warrior fighting against the other competitors unimpeded, maybe make it so they can make it through the trial alive.
Instead of utilizing reason like that, Sky's reason is based on something utterly ludicrous. "I'm not worth anything." I mean, look at him go, putting a value on human life, commodifying it. Guess who else commodifies human life? The villains of the story. In fact, they put so little value on it, it's as if human life is worthless, unless, of course, the human of question isn't, you know, special. Special, why? Because they have:
Been mentioned in a prophecy;
Blue blood.
Which reason is more sensible? From a completely abstract point, which reason is more sensible? Neither, really, because a human's value isn't defined by things outside of that human's control, is it? It isn't, not ideally. Thus, this is not good. And it happens - it gets done.
Fortunately, the MC goes back for Sky Monster and saves him, but the sheer fact that this is Sky Monster's reasoning makes me highly uncomfortable.
What makes me more uncomfortable is that the problems are not addressed. We've got this lack of value for human life, we've got this lack of value for Neanderthal life, and what's the solution? Depend on the goodwill of those in power. At the end, Hades, who had promised the king of the Minotaurs freedom after the Great Games reached their conclusion, does just that - gives them freedom.
That's very weird. It's cool that he does that, it's nice that he keeps his word, but can you, dear reader, imagine any leader in current day rescinding power voluntarily? Especially if that person is an unscrupulous businessman? It's impossible, not just implausible.
One could argue that it only happens because his sons are both dead, it could be that it is because his purpose in life has been… Fulfilled, in a sense, and it could also be because the Minotaurs are rioting, but, again, it seems weird. Strange, unlike anything reality suggests might happen in a similar situation. I mean, just look at the recent past! The US elections, the war in Ukraine - it's unbelievable.
I huff and I puff. The story is not too bad, as a whole. It remained engaging and left me curious to see what happens until the very end, it wasn't badly structured, it didn't have any incredibly glaring issues, except with its lack of want to engage with the problems it could have easily discussed. 2/3
Legendary Point
Does this book about conspiracy theories get the point? No. It doesn't, for reasons I've listed. It doesn't, because many of the things said by characters within are echoed BY REAL PEOPLE who BELIEVE that there's a conspiracy like that. It doesn't, because it didn't tell me it was the fourth in a series, and I read it thinking it was a standalone piece. It doesn't, because how the fuck is Jonathan Jack? 0/1
Conclusion
5/10. It's an average book. "The four legendary kingdoms" was nothing extraordinary, but it wasn't something bad, either. It was what it was, a book I would recommend to thriller junkies, and that about does it for the list.
In the bag of mediocrity it goes, to gather dust with all the other mediocre things that I couldn't care less about.