4.06 AVERAGE


A lot of this was action, which I wasn't super into, but also pretty sentimental. There's a lot of characters stepping up and making definitive choices, which makes sense since this concludes the second arc. Things are looking to be promising and I'm excited to see where the last three books take the series.
adventurous challenging dark emotional funny informative mysterious sad tense fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes
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briekaryna's review

3.75
adventurous tense medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Plot
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes
adventurous challenging dark fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

   Now that Emily and Navin are spending more time with the Cielisians, it is quite apparent that where Leon, their mother, Vigo, and the resistance fighters implicitly trusted Emily and Navin to save the world because of a prophecy, the Cielisians do not. The Cielisian commander is firmly in the camp that any respect should be earned, and to him, Navin especially hasn’t earned it (since he tests so poorly at exams), and he and Emily are both just kids. This at a time when they can’t afford to be disagreeing amongst themselves: Max and the Elf King’s forces are hitting hard and fast, decimating the town of Lucien and focused on getting Emily, Vigo, and Trellis – the last Guardian Council. In order to get ahead of Max, Emily and Trellis will have to do something few Stonekeepers have succeeded in doing: visit Max’s memories and survive the Void.
   This is the first book where it is most obvious that there are time-jumps to keep the story moving, because since when is Navin going to school for piloting the Colossus and other mecha/machines? Not to mention the level of destruction the Elf King’s forces are wrecking on Lucien and other cities. There were also a few moments where things were mentioned as having happened, and if they did on-page, they were phrased differently than here. I’m reading these close enough together that I would think I would remember some of what they’re mentioning, but then again, I am also reading them fast, and maybe not absorbing every (important) detail quite as thoroughly as I should.
   I am enjoying seeing Emily and Navin being able to actively rely on others to support them, something that they’ve always expressed an interest in doing but had very little occasion to put into practice with the adults around them nearly constantly telling them to just trust their instincts. Which, ironically, is exactly what Aly’s dad tells her, too, as she helps out Navin in his missions. For the most part, children/teenagers are being trusted with little question, presumably because of the vague prophecy we hear about every now and again. That doesn’t even take into consideration Max, and what is going on with him. We learn just enough about him in this book to get an idea of how complex a person he is, but I also feel like it fell short of filling in the lines that were drawn of his history and his motivations. It seems like ever since the second book or so, there has been considerably less emphasis on fleshing things out, and much more on just keeping things moving and getting as much action in as possible. This volume fortunately had a little more flesh to it, which is why it took me about an hour to read versus 45-50 minutes for most of the previous volumes, though still not as much as I think it needed to be really solid.

3.75
adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Plot
Strong character development: Complicated
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: No

Wonderful story!! Exciting stuff, enjoying the character growth, makes for some really loveable characters. Love it!!
adventurous emotional lighthearted mysterious medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Plot
Strong character development: No
Loveable characters: No
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes
adventurous dark emotional tense medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

my current favourite of the series