In hindsight, it seems inevitable that there was going to be a compilation of the entire Metamorphosis saga. After all, such a single volume is not just good from a business standpoint, but it also serves as a last chance to make improvements and corrections discovered since the previous versions came out. In other words, a compiled volume is the final and complete word on a work. Unfortunately, Metamorphosis: The Complete Journey, stumbles somewhat in that regard.

The fantasy novel set within the confines of the D&D multiverse (with various intellectual properties changed, since this is a third-party book), Metamorphosis tells the story of the mortal wizard Hazergal, who has just died and gone to the Abyss for his wicked life. There, he makes the arduous climb from dretch to demon lord (which, not coincidentally, is the book’s subtitle). Along the way, he makes various enemies and allies among the Abyssal Lords, and becomes embroiled in a planar plot regarding the fate of the multiverse.

The story is a well-crafted one, but suffers from a plot that is very straightforward and has little surprises. What few plot twists the story has are easy to see coming, and – as I noted in my review of the third book – things progress in a linear fashion, with an almost methodical feel to them. Events proceed from A to B to C exactly as you’d expect. This isn’t to say the story is bad. The characters are well-crafted and feel realistic in their capacities (I, personally, couldn’t get enough of Hedrenatherax), and the pacing and focus is nicely done, with chapters devoted to some characters interspersed with chapters devoted to others. Just don’t expect to be astounded at any point.

The technical aspects of the book are handled well, for the most part. While there is no table of contents, there are a series of bookmarks to each of the three books, and each chapter within each book, making navigation easy. There are also links to each of the various NPCs presented in the appendix, and even to new items or creatues that are listed as a subset of an NPC’s entry. However, the NPCs in the appendix are all listed in alphabetical order, and the bookmarks to them do not quite follow suit. This can make for a slightly confusing experience when you click on the last link, and it takes you to the middle of the Appendix.

Also regarding technical aspects of the book, I must mention the illustrations: specifically, that there aren’t any. Oh, the cover is still there (being a blend of the covers of each of the three individual books), but that’s all. All of the illustrations from the Deluxe Versions of the first two books are nowhere to be found here. That’s something of a shame, as I quite liked those pictures of the various characters; I can only imagine that it would have cost extra to reprint them here, but either way, it’s still a loss; a compilation isn’t supposed to be less than the original works.

The last aspect of the book that must be mentioned is the NPC stats in the appendix. In addition to including all of the stats from the Deluxe Versions of the first two books, it also has a series of new stat blocks for characters and creatures from the last book as well. This will surely be welcome to anyone who was upset to hear that the final book wasn’t getting a Deluxe Version as well. That said, there were a few things that I found disappointing here. First of all was that there was no errata applied to the NPC stats. Several of the stat blocks from the first two books had various mechanical errors, none of which were fixed here – a missed opportunity to be sure. The second thing that was a bit of a downer was that the main protagonist (in his final form) and Antagonist both lack stat blocks at all. This seems like an oversight, as well as a waste, as these are perhaps the most archetypal characters in the book, as well as (possibly) the ones most likely to be used in a home game (albeit an epic-level one). Why these two characters were overlooked is beyond me.

All in all, The Complete Journey is one that makes a few missteps along the way. This product is a good one that is undermined by its flaws, something which is made worse by the fact that was a second chance to make sure most of those flaws were ironed out. The result is a novel and game book that never quite lives up to its potential. Still, it’s enjoyable to read, and brings some good new crunch to the table.