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4.17 AVERAGE
4.17 AVERAGE
adventurous
medium-paced
Fun, but really the series is ready getting repetitive.
I'm so glad to be done. Truly should have stopped after 2 books.
My Rating: 1 stars
Granny's Rating: 3.5 stars
My Rating: 1 stars
Granny's Rating: 3.5 stars
I'm 20% I'm to this novel and so far it is an extreme bore. I'm only persisting to finish out the series faithfully. Flanagan has the understandable idea to gather all the characters ever presented in his novels to band together for a grand adventure to end the series with a bang. However, not only does this gathering take a fifth of the entire novel to set up, it seems very unnatural and forced. Lastly, the comments and behaviors of the characters seem out of line with their behaviors in previous novels to the point I feel I almost can't recognize them. These changes, I believe, are to create drama and friction.
Upon finishing the book, I noticed that the last half flew by and suddenly I was almost finished. The second half of the book redeemed the first half to four stars, and my biggest complaint is the forced drama. This wasn't my favorite in the series, but I am pleased I continued reading the novel.
Upon finishing the book, I noticed that the last half flew by and suddenly I was almost finished. The second half of the book redeemed the first half to four stars, and my biggest complaint is the forced drama. This wasn't my favorite in the series, but I am pleased I continued reading the novel.
[review from 2012]
I finished The Emperor of Nihon-Ja by John Flanagan a few days ago, and I’m starting to get really sad this series is ending. This book was longer than the others, which was great, but it had one of Will, Horace and Halt’s adventures in one book, which makes me think that it was actually shorter than most. This book series has made me laugh so much, and it’s great, unless you’re in class trying to muffle your snickers after a test. I love the witty banter between all the characters. I love that Alyss and Evanlyn finally solved their conflicts between Will, and that they’re both flawed.
And at the end (not giving away the ending), I screamed and danced around my room for about five minutes at 3:00 am. This book series is fantastic and I’ll be sure to read The Lost Stories as well, though I hate that it has to end. It’s just so good. The part where Will muses over the fact that some people have never been away from Castle Redmont, and he’s been to Toscana (Italy), Picta (Scotland), Hibernia (Ireland), Skandia (Scandinavia), Arrida (Egypt) and now he’s in Nihon-Ja (Japan) gave me chills. I’ve become so fond of the characters over the ten books that in this one I’ve actually curled up and began muttering “my babies” over and over again, even with Halt. I cannot even express my sheer love for this book series and will send a letter to John Flanagan requesting he write more. (Okay, not really, but you get what I mean.)
I finished The Emperor of Nihon-Ja by John Flanagan a few days ago, and I’m starting to get really sad this series is ending. This book was longer than the others, which was great, but it had one of Will, Horace and Halt’s adventures in one book, which makes me think that it was actually shorter than most. This book series has made me laugh so much, and it’s great, unless you’re in class trying to muffle your snickers after a test. I love the witty banter between all the characters. I love that Alyss and Evanlyn finally solved their conflicts between Will, and that they’re both flawed.
And at the end (not giving away the ending), I screamed and danced around my room for about five minutes at 3:00 am. This book series is fantastic and I’ll be sure to read The Lost Stories as well, though I hate that it has to end. It’s just so good. The part where Will muses over the fact that some people have never been away from Castle Redmont, and he’s been to Toscana (Italy), Picta (Scotland), Hibernia (Ireland), Skandia (Scandinavia), Arrida (Egypt) and now he’s in Nihon-Ja (Japan) gave me chills. I’ve become so fond of the characters over the ten books that in this one I’ve actually curled up and began muttering “my babies” over and over again, even with Halt. I cannot even express my sheer love for this book series and will send a letter to John Flanagan requesting he write more. (Okay, not really, but you get what I mean.)
It was good. It was filled with adventure and cleverness, a good combination.
The basic set up of this book is very similar to almost every other single book in the series.
- A new country that's either a copy of an existing country or a weird mix of several existing countries
- New allies that will never return except maybe for one book later on (unless they're skandians because they come back every single time despite not being that likeable)
-Like I said, enter the skandians
-A battle in some ingenious new way that one of the main characters thinks of
-It almost goes bad
-One of the main characters saves the day at the last moment
It's getting a little old and predictable. I also feel like the main characters are barely developed anymore, they're just put into situations very similar to the ones they have already faced and repeat the same basic adventure over and over.
The one thing that did develop was the friendship between Alyss and Evanlyn. I have been rooting for these girls to interact and become friends ever since they were both introduced but it was still slightly disappointing. It took most of the book to get them to stop hating eachother even though their reasons for doing so were really silly. Girls can dislike eachother for other reasons than a guy, especially when its obvious there's nothing to be jealous about. Alyss and Will have been dating since what, book 5? 6? How come she still thinks 5 books later that Evanlyn is in love with him? And even if she was, that's no reason to hate her. Will obviously likes Alyss better and doesn't show any interest in Evanlyn, if Alyss was worried about Will liking her she should take that up with Will, not with the other girl. But even though the argument is about Will, he gets written of as clueless and isn't involved in the conflict at all. It felt very forced and the fact that the author couldn't come up with better conflict than "two girls fighting over a boy" feels kinda sexist to me. This was a great opportunity to expore their characters in more depth but instead it still feels very flat.
- A new country that's either a copy of an existing country or a weird mix of several existing countries
- New allies that will never return except maybe for one book later on (unless they're skandians because they come back every single time despite not being that likeable)
-Like I said, enter the skandians
-A battle in some ingenious new way that one of the main characters thinks of
-It almost goes bad
-One of the main characters saves the day at the last moment
It's getting a little old and predictable. I also feel like the main characters are barely developed anymore, they're just put into situations very similar to the ones they have already faced and repeat the same basic adventure over and over.
The one thing that did develop was the friendship between Alyss and Evanlyn. I have been rooting for these girls to interact and become friends ever since they were both introduced but it was still slightly disappointing. It took most of the book to get them to stop hating eachother even though their reasons for doing so were really silly. Girls can dislike eachother for other reasons than a guy, especially when its obvious there's nothing to be jealous about. Alyss and Will have been dating since what, book 5? 6? How come she still thinks 5 books later that Evanlyn is in love with him? And even if she was, that's no reason to hate her. Will obviously likes Alyss better and doesn't show any interest in Evanlyn, if Alyss was worried about Will liking her she should take that up with Will, not with the other girl. But even though the argument is about Will, he gets written of as clueless and isn't involved in the conflict at all. It felt very forced and the fact that the author couldn't come up with better conflict than "two girls fighting over a boy" feels kinda sexist to me. This was a great opportunity to expore their characters in more depth but instead it still feels very flat.
adventurous
funny
fast-paced
One of my favorites of the series! Loving the girl power moments!