Magic

For the penultimate book... this was very disappointing. Regardless of the great set up in the last chapter for the final book... there were problems with this one.



Number one, they found out about the evil new traveller on Second Earth and how he came to be. So... why did they try to stop him on Second Earth instead of going back to First Earth and preventing him from becoming what he does? Why did no one even mention that path?!



With that big issue (for me)... it became more an exercise of reading through the pages to get to the end of the book and see how it all wraps up. It's too bad, really. Had there been even a moment of someone saying "hey why don't we stop him this way?" with another character explaining why they had to stop him on the Second Earth turning point, it would have made all the difference.



So, now, everything is in turmoil and we head off into the Final Book. ( )

This is the "penultimate Pendragon," as D.J. MacHale himself calls it. And boy, is it full of everything needed to lead into the final chapter of this series that literally spans all of space and time.

It has come back to Second Earth. Bobby, trapped on Ibara by his own hand, has a painful revelation to make. He hasn't stopped Saint Dane. Instead, the demon has freed himself and is now launching his final plan to bring about the Convergence and his ultimate goal. And he has, at last, chosen Bobby's home as the battleground.

A terrifying cult leader named Alexander Naymeer brings millions under his sway, pointing Second Earth toward a vision of utopia with a horrifying dark side. Mark and Courtney struggle to keep their heads in the game even as their ties to Bobby pull them into the center of the conflict. Saint Dane and his accomplice Nevva Winter come up with the most brutal and fiendishly intelligent plans yet. And Bobby, fighting with the pain of his own duty, ethics, choices, and responsibilities, will either triumph or shatter beneath it all.

Everything in this book is bigger. The series gets progressively darker, scarier, more suspenseful, more wrenching, more intense. Strange new twists get thrown in, things you weren't expecting at all. And the ending leaves you at the edge of a cliff at the end of all things, waiting to see what the final fight for Halla will bring. I am really counting on MacHale not to fumble this ending, and to take some of the strange concepts he's introduced and make them work well instead of fall flat. I can't wait! ( )

Only one more book in this series...and this one is the perfect lead in for it. Not the greatest, but still pretty good. ( )

Gripping and true to form. This book does it's job of sucking you in and making you want to read more. So much happens that it makes your head spin. There are triumphs and heartbreaks and I am so anxious to get resolution (and maybe a little retribution). ( )