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A review by faeonyx
Keys to the Demon Prison by Brandon Mull
5.0
Keys to the Demon Prison is the final book in the Fablehaven series and offers an interesting twist to the story. It opens with Seth paying a visit to the demon Graulas, and Graulas' desperate plea for the Sands of Sanctity. He claims that it will heal his wounds, but not his spirit. He would still be dying. The entire exchange almost forces the reader to find some sort of sympathy for Graulas. He doesn't even force Seth to promise to bring the sands back, simply asks him to promise he will try. This seems to serve to remind the reader that Seth, though he has done quite a lot of growing up, is still not relying on common sense to make decisions. He clearly has a loyalty to the demon, but that clouds his judgment.
Still, the setup with the desperate plea of the demon helps to ground the rest of the story in the same kind of tone. The Knights of the Dawn are ona desperate, life-threatening quest. If they do not succeed then the world will end. Graulas echoes this because the sands are the last dying wish of an old relic. If Seth does not succeed, it spells a very painful end for Graulas. As a reader, I found myself initially hoping Seth would succeed. After all, Graulas was good to him throughout the series. Perhaps he isn't all bad in the end.
This book does a great job at highlighting the sense of desperation felt by the characters. Because the Sphinx is quickly closing in on his goal, which he confesses to Seth after capture that he feels he has already won, the Knights are pushed into more and more desperate actions as they move through the story. When they go back to Patton to find out more about their options, he can tell them relatively little except that they must look for entities that are not named and cannot be traced. He gives them three questionably desperate options, some of which had never even been heard of as real items, only things of legend. Every move that the Knights must make becomes more desperate and more of a long shot.
The one disappointment about this book was that there were several things mentioned here that had never been mentioned before. When Patton brings up the Singing Sisters, Ruth and Stan have heard of them, but they had never been brought up before, which is a little sad in the grand scheme of things. In places, it seems as though these things were added in as a plot device for the last book and have no real ground to hold in the series as a whole. They offer useful information and enrich the world of the last book, but it would have been nice on occasion to get a little foreshadowing for some of these elements in earlier books as well instead of just throwing them in at the last minute. It wasn't enough to draw me out of the story, but it was enough to raise a sort of alarm to their presence.
Another new element added to the mix was the Eternals, which offer up an interesting bit of magic in a world that is already very strange and alien to the normal world. Patton is the one to have discovered the existence of the Eternals, and this is a key to the prison that is so closely guarded that it is actually believable few people would have heard of it before now. He stressed finding them at all costs, but that it would be difficult without the use of the oculus. They also offer an interesting unpredictability to the cause. They are human, but immortal in most ways. This means that they are free to move about the world as they please, which means they are more difficult to find than stationary artifacts. It poses a bigger problem because the Sphinx won't have to actively track them, but the Knights will.
The story in the book remains fresh because new artifacts to help or hinder the cause of both sides are constantly cropping up. The differences between Kendra and Seth's abilities ends up highlighted in a very interesting way, and the action of the story remains consistently heightened throughout the entirety of the novel, offering a really interesting glimpse into the powers at play in the book. Over all, it is an excellent read that grips the reader at every turn.
Still, the setup with the desperate plea of the demon helps to ground the rest of the story in the same kind of tone. The Knights of the Dawn are ona desperate, life-threatening quest. If they do not succeed then the world will end. Graulas echoes this because the sands are the last dying wish of an old relic. If Seth does not succeed, it spells a very painful end for Graulas. As a reader, I found myself initially hoping Seth would succeed. After all, Graulas was good to him throughout the series. Perhaps he isn't all bad in the end.
This book does a great job at highlighting the sense of desperation felt by the characters. Because the Sphinx is quickly closing in on his goal, which he confesses to Seth after capture that he feels he has already won, the Knights are pushed into more and more desperate actions as they move through the story. When they go back to Patton to find out more about their options, he can tell them relatively little except that they must look for entities that are not named and cannot be traced. He gives them three questionably desperate options, some of which had never even been heard of as real items, only things of legend. Every move that the Knights must make becomes more desperate and more of a long shot.
The one disappointment about this book was that there were several things mentioned here that had never been mentioned before. When Patton brings up the Singing Sisters, Ruth and Stan have heard of them, but they had never been brought up before, which is a little sad in the grand scheme of things. In places, it seems as though these things were added in as a plot device for the last book and have no real ground to hold in the series as a whole. They offer useful information and enrich the world of the last book, but it would have been nice on occasion to get a little foreshadowing for some of these elements in earlier books as well instead of just throwing them in at the last minute. It wasn't enough to draw me out of the story, but it was enough to raise a sort of alarm to their presence.
Another new element added to the mix was the Eternals, which offer up an interesting bit of magic in a world that is already very strange and alien to the normal world. Patton is the one to have discovered the existence of the Eternals, and this is a key to the prison that is so closely guarded that it is actually believable few people would have heard of it before now. He stressed finding them at all costs, but that it would be difficult without the use of the oculus. They also offer an interesting unpredictability to the cause. They are human, but immortal in most ways. This means that they are free to move about the world as they please, which means they are more difficult to find than stationary artifacts. It poses a bigger problem because the Sphinx won't have to actively track them, but the Knights will.
The story in the book remains fresh because new artifacts to help or hinder the cause of both sides are constantly cropping up. The differences between Kendra and Seth's abilities ends up highlighted in a very interesting way, and the action of the story remains consistently heightened throughout the entirety of the novel, offering a really interesting glimpse into the powers at play in the book. Over all, it is an excellent read that grips the reader at every turn.