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3.83 AVERAGE
3.83 AVERAGE
The final installment in the Keys to the Kingdom series. The House is being over taken by Nothing; the Piper and Lady Saturday have joined together against Lord Sunday, and Arthur by extension. In the series finale, Arthur must wrench the seventh key from Lord Sunday and save the House and the rest of the universe from destruction - but is that what the Will has in mind? A satisfying and somewhat surprising ending.
Not gonna lie: when I re-read the first few books to the series, I feel like they were dragging on and on without much appeal—only revealing interesting characters and plot towards the end. I can't believe I used to dig that as a teenager—and HOW did I get through them?!?!
But, having only read this book now—a.k.a. this isn't a re-read—I quickly felt a HUGE difference in pace, writing and feel throughout the whole book. It could be because Garth Nix took quite a while publishing this book after its previous instalment—and thus has grown considerably as an author. First, there is no recap of what happened in the previous books as there used to be, no usual let-me-go-back-to-Earth dance that Arthur usually does on the beginning of the story, no introduction of the Trustee or the realm they govern. It is straight into action with this one and Arthur takes it into his own hands to do what he knows he must. I also love the perfectly divided attention between Arthur, Suzy and Leaf—each leading their own adventures. In sharp contrast to the previous six books, this one has me wondering what will happen next all the time. There is simply no lull in the story, although also not too much going on that it would be confusing either. It all adds up beautifully in the end.
Not to spoil anyone, but it definitely has a HUGE plot twist that I never even considered before—although some readers might have thought of. It kind of relieving to see Lord Sunday to be quite human, that he has a good reason why he did what he did—and how he handles Arthur shows that he is not just a villain. In a way, this plot twist got me hooked and it kept me going. Until the end, it doesn't disappoint, although I wish I knew what happens to Arthur and Leaf afterwards on earth. Some might think the ending is a little forced—understandable, really—but I feel like it actually explains everything that has yet to be explained thus far. Definitely love that everything comes back full circle.
As someone who read this as a teenager, I must say I am glad to finally close this chapter entirely—after waiting for years for this book to come out and later on to be more affordable for me—and that it ended at such a great note. So glad it didn't disappoint—at least not for me.
But, having only read this book now—a.k.a. this isn't a re-read—I quickly felt a HUGE difference in pace, writing and feel throughout the whole book. It could be because Garth Nix took quite a while publishing this book after its previous instalment—and thus has grown considerably as an author. First, there is no recap of what happened in the previous books as there used to be, no usual let-me-go-back-to-Earth dance that Arthur usually does on the beginning of the story, no introduction of the Trustee or the realm they govern. It is straight into action with this one and Arthur takes it into his own hands to do what he knows he must. I also love the perfectly divided attention between Arthur, Suzy and Leaf—each leading their own adventures. In sharp contrast to the previous six books, this one has me wondering what will happen next all the time. There is simply no lull in the story, although also not too much going on that it would be confusing either. It all adds up beautifully in the end.
Not to spoil anyone, but it definitely has a HUGE plot twist that I never even considered before—although some readers might have thought of. It kind of relieving to see Lord Sunday to be quite human, that he has a good reason why he did what he did—and how he handles Arthur shows that he is not just a villain. In a way, this plot twist got me hooked and it kept me going. Until the end, it doesn't disappoint, although I wish I knew what happens to Arthur and Leaf afterwards on earth. Some might think the ending is a little forced—understandable, really—but I feel like it actually explains everything that has yet to be explained thus far. Definitely love that everything comes back full circle.
As someone who read this as a teenager, I must say I am glad to finally close this chapter entirely—after waiting for years for this book to come out and later on to be more affordable for me—and that it ended at such a great note. So glad it didn't disappoint—at least not for me.
I felt like I'd been waiting SO LONG for this final book in the series that I had almost stopped caring. But once I was back in Arthur's world, I was glad I was there again. Almost no ending could have been good enough, but this one was very close. I really liked how much time we got to spend with Leaf and Suzy Turquoise Blue, except for the fact that it made Arthur's storyline feel almost secondary much of the time. If you haven't read this series, I do recommend it - especially now that the entire series is out and you won't have to wait a HUGE chunk of time like I did for the conclusion!
I have mixed feelings about this final "Keys to the Kingdom" novel and its conclusion to the series. My main issues stem from a sense that the ending was incredibly rushed; about 30 pages from the end I started to wonder if we were going to get any sort of ending at all.
**SPOILERS AHEAD**
Here are my biggest problems with the ending:
1) The Piper. Maybe I read too much into the Piper's role throughout the series, or maybe Nix initially intended to have the Piper play a big role only to change his mind at the last second. Either way, I absolutely expected the Piper to be crucial to the events of "Lord Sunday." Instead, he shows up for a brief cameo role, hears that Arthur is going to destroy the world, basically says, "Screw this!" and peaces out. Wait, what?!
2) Emily's death. This is a big one for me. I believe that death in literature should have weight and importance. It should impact the characters and story in a major way. It should not be done lightly... which is exactly how Emily's death is handled. Like the Piper, Emily appears once, briefly, at the beginning of "Lord Sunday," but afterwards isn't mentioned again until the end when Arthur realizes that destroying the world has caused his mother to die as well. But Arthur isn't particularly upset about it, and that bothered me. A better way to have handled this would be if Arthur realized that Emily was going to die before it actually happened, at which point he would have undergone an internal struggle that put more weight on his actions at the end.
3) The novel/series ends on a very quick note and would have been more satisfactory to me if we had had an epilogue of some sort, say 6 months or so in the future, that shows Arthur and Leaf coping with their lives after everything that had happened. Instead, the world ends, is recreated, and then we're done.
**END SPOILERS**
I got the very distinct impression that earlier in the series Nix had intended to take the story one way, but by the time he reached the last two books had to alter his plans. That left a number of loose threads hanging, which may not have bothered readers who followed this series from the very beginning, but as someone who read all 7 books in a relatively short time, they were much more noticeable to me.
I'm not trying to hate on this series too much. If nothing else, "Keys to the Kingdom" shows just how powerful Nix's imagination is. But I wonder if a seven part series published over the course of ten years was too much for him. Towards the end, I felt that he was ready to be done with the series... which is a good thing, because I was too.
**SPOILERS AHEAD**
Here are my biggest problems with the ending:
1) The Piper. Maybe I read too much into the Piper's role throughout the series, or maybe Nix initially intended to have the Piper play a big role only to change his mind at the last second. Either way, I absolutely expected the Piper to be crucial to the events of "Lord Sunday." Instead, he shows up for a brief cameo role, hears that Arthur is going to destroy the world, basically says, "Screw this!" and peaces out. Wait, what?!
2) Emily's death. This is a big one for me. I believe that death in literature should have weight and importance. It should impact the characters and story in a major way. It should not be done lightly... which is exactly how Emily's death is handled. Like the Piper, Emily appears once, briefly, at the beginning of "Lord Sunday," but afterwards isn't mentioned again until the end when Arthur realizes that destroying the world has caused his mother to die as well. But Arthur isn't particularly upset about it, and that bothered me. A better way to have handled this would be if Arthur realized that Emily was going to die before it actually happened, at which point he would have undergone an internal struggle that put more weight on his actions at the end.
3) The novel/series ends on a very quick note and would have been more satisfactory to me if we had had an epilogue of some sort, say 6 months or so in the future, that shows Arthur and Leaf coping with their lives after everything that had happened. Instead, the world ends, is recreated, and then we're done.
**END SPOILERS**
I got the very distinct impression that earlier in the series Nix had intended to take the story one way, but by the time he reached the last two books had to alter his plans. That left a number of loose threads hanging, which may not have bothered readers who followed this series from the very beginning, but as someone who read all 7 books in a relatively short time, they were much more noticeable to me.
I'm not trying to hate on this series too much. If nothing else, "Keys to the Kingdom" shows just how powerful Nix's imagination is. But I wonder if a seven part series published over the course of ten years was too much for him. Towards the end, I felt that he was ready to be done with the series... which is a good thing, because I was too.
adventurous
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Best ending possible! Garth Nix is crazy for this one!
Fun fact, I thought I remembered the ending being (not really a spoiler ) Arthur waking up back in time the day he almost died and met Mr Monday, looking up and seeing Leaf. But I guess I made that up as the years went by.
Fun fact, I thought I remembered the ending being (not really a spoiler )
I'm a little sad that my adventures with Arthur are now over, but they did end rather spectacularly, so at least that's something. And Arthur gets to have his cake and eat it too, so that was nice.
This is definitely the type of book that would have really appealed to me in middle school, I would have loved to find myself in the House on an adventure of some type.
I really enjoyed the world that Nix created in these books, especially the House, my favorite still being Mr. Monday's lower house.
The obsession with tea and biscuits was also very funny and right up my alley. The characters were all fun and fun to read about and it was good at creating very tense scenes that could have gone either way for poor Arthur, and a couple twists that made it interesting.
Overall, I wasn't really expecting much when I picked up Mr. Monday, but with Alan Corduner's wonderful narration, and the lovely world Nix created, it hooked me instantly and has been a great series.
This is definitely the type of book that would have really appealed to me in middle school, I would have loved to find myself in the House on an adventure of some type.
I really enjoyed the world that Nix created in these books, especially the House, my favorite still being Mr. Monday's lower house.
The obsession with tea and biscuits was also very funny and right up my alley. The characters were all fun and fun to read about and it was good at creating very tense scenes that could have gone either way for poor Arthur, and a couple twists that made it interesting.
Overall, I wasn't really expecting much when I picked up Mr. Monday, but with Alan Corduner's wonderful narration, and the lovely world Nix created, it hooked me instantly and has been a great series.
Aww, end of an era. I'd recommend this to any fantasy lover.
http://recenseernogeenkeer.wordpress.com/2013/01/28/lord-sunday/
http://recenseernogeenkeer.wordpress.com/2013/01/28/lord-sunday/
rereading this series was so weirdly emotional. it was my absolute favourite when i was about...10? it must have been?? and this last book kind of embodies all that weird nostalgia in its storyline. anyway i cried