Take a photo of a barcode or cover
lesserjoke 's review for:
Bastille vs. the Evil Librarians
by Brandon Sanderson, Janci Patterson
[Disclaimer: I am Facebook friends with the first author.]
Middle-grade book series are odd, in that their release schedule often outpaces the age of their target audience. That's particularly the case for the Alcatraz Smedry sextet, which published its first four novels annually from 2007 to 2010, then a fifth volume in 2016 and now this final tale after another six years. Yet the main characters are still 13, as readers who have grown up over the past decade-and-a-half may be frustrated to find (especially after being primed for increasing maturity in the progression of certain other children's fantasy series). The Alcatraz books do get somewhat darker and more mature as they go along, but they never lose the tween zaniness inherent to a premise of evil librarians secretly ruling the world or heroes with special powers like "getting lost," "breaking things," and "arriving late."
Those goofy Smedry talents have always been the primary appeal of these stories to me, and my biggest critique of this finale is that we mostly just see repeats of earlier ones, rather than much in the way of new inventiveness. There's also not really any noticeable payoff from the switch to a new narrator perspective, or from the contributions of co-writer Janci Patterson following five installments from author Brandon Sanderson alone. This title offers a solid conclusion to the remaining plot concerns, and I'm glad we finally have it in our hands after such a long wait, but I'm not seeing anything on the page that would clearly justify that delay. I suspect the series might work better overall for people who are able to read the story straight through, whatever their age at the time.
[Content warning for gun violence.]
This volume: ★★★☆☆
Overall series: ★★★☆☆
Volumes ranked:
4 > 3 > 2 > 6 > 1 > 5
Like this review?
--Throw me a quick one-time donation here!
https://ko-fi.com/lesserjoke
--Subscribe here to support my writing and weigh in on what I read next!
https://patreon.com/lesserjoke
--Follow along on Goodreads here!
https://www.goodreads.com/user/show/6288479-joe-kessler
--Or click here to browse through all my previous reviews!
https://lesserjoke.home.blog
Middle-grade book series are odd, in that their release schedule often outpaces the age of their target audience. That's particularly the case for the Alcatraz Smedry sextet, which published its first four novels annually from 2007 to 2010, then a fifth volume in 2016 and now this final tale after another six years. Yet the main characters are still 13, as readers who have grown up over the past decade-and-a-half may be frustrated to find (especially after being primed for increasing maturity in the progression of certain other children's fantasy series). The Alcatraz books do get somewhat darker and more mature as they go along, but they never lose the tween zaniness inherent to a premise of evil librarians secretly ruling the world or heroes with special powers like "getting lost," "breaking things," and "arriving late."
Those goofy Smedry talents have always been the primary appeal of these stories to me, and my biggest critique of this finale is that we mostly just see repeats of earlier ones, rather than much in the way of new inventiveness. There's also not really any noticeable payoff from the switch to a new narrator perspective, or from the contributions of co-writer Janci Patterson following five installments from author Brandon Sanderson alone. This title offers a solid conclusion to the remaining plot concerns, and I'm glad we finally have it in our hands after such a long wait, but I'm not seeing anything on the page that would clearly justify that delay. I suspect the series might work better overall for people who are able to read the story straight through, whatever their age at the time.
[Content warning for gun violence.]
This volume: ★★★☆☆
Overall series: ★★★☆☆
Volumes ranked:
4 > 3 > 2 > 6 > 1 > 5
Like this review?
--Throw me a quick one-time donation here!
https://ko-fi.com/lesserjoke
--Subscribe here to support my writing and weigh in on what I read next!
https://patreon.com/lesserjoke
--Follow along on Goodreads here!
https://www.goodreads.com/user/show/6288479-joe-kessler
--Or click here to browse through all my previous reviews!
https://lesserjoke.home.blog