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A review by jljaina
ArchEnemy by Frank Beddor
3.0
In this series, The Looking Glass Wars, Frank Beddor his given us an intricate, highly imaginative world. He took the world of Wonderland to a new level, giving it more depth, creativity and action. This final book takes what the first two books created to give us an action-packed ending.
While I love the series concept, I felt this one fell short of what the first two books set-up. The imagination was starting to feel a bit flat in this book. A few new ideas but mostly just a long wrap-up of the past couple books. The character story was especially lacking. We jump all over the place, every couple pages we are seeing things from another perspective. No real depth or character growth. A little with Molly and Charles Dodgson but that is about it. Alyss seemed to lose all personality, Redd was much milder than past books. Arch luckily was still a smart, wicked tyrant.
This book was full of action! While lacking in some areas, it didn't lack here. Yet with how much was happening I feel it would have made a better movie than book. In fact, if this series were turned into movies, I would assuredly go see them. It might even make this book make more sense. The constant jumping and scene changing keeps you glued to what is happening but we never seem to get much resolution to what was happening in the last scene. It needed more details and time to really explain what was going on at times. I think Mr. Beddor's mind was likely visualizing some amazing battles but his mind must have been so much faster than his pen could keep up with.
This series is still worth reading. The first two books are amazing and you need to read this to finish the story arc. However, this conclusion leaves space for improvement for filling in some blanks. I hate when authors start a series and don't finish and I always said "Any ending is better than no ending." Well this wasn't much better than that concept. It does wrap things up but I felt empty as I read a lot of this final book. The action was fun but I felt detached from the characters which I don't like.
While I love the series concept, I felt this one fell short of what the first two books set-up. The imagination was starting to feel a bit flat in this book. A few new ideas but mostly just a long wrap-up of the past couple books. The character story was especially lacking. We jump all over the place, every couple pages we are seeing things from another perspective. No real depth or character growth. A little with Molly and Charles Dodgson but that is about it. Alyss seemed to lose all personality, Redd was much milder than past books. Arch luckily was still a smart, wicked tyrant.
This book was full of action! While lacking in some areas, it didn't lack here. Yet with how much was happening I feel it would have made a better movie than book. In fact, if this series were turned into movies, I would assuredly go see them. It might even make this book make more sense. The constant jumping and scene changing keeps you glued to what is happening but we never seem to get much resolution to what was happening in the last scene. It needed more details and time to really explain what was going on at times. I think Mr. Beddor's mind was likely visualizing some amazing battles but his mind must have been so much faster than his pen could keep up with.
This series is still worth reading. The first two books are amazing and you need to read this to finish the story arc. However, this conclusion leaves space for improvement for filling in some blanks. I hate when authors start a series and don't finish and I always said "Any ending is better than no ending." Well this wasn't much better than that concept. It does wrap things up but I felt empty as I read a lot of this final book. The action was fun but I felt detached from the characters which I don't like.