26. Pendragon 8: The Pilgrims of Rayne, by D.J. MacHale
So this book concludes the Pendragon portion of my list. This story takes Bobby to the territory of Ibara, where he is hoping to defeat the evil Saint Dane once and for all, but he finds some very unfortunate surprises in store for him. Saint Dane has been demonstrating his eagerness to mix items, lifeforms, and even people between the territories in the past several battles, but they are getting even more intense here on Ibara, and Bobby is in for even more sadness when he realizes that this territory is even more familiar than he first thought. Meanwhile, Bobby's friend Mark has disappeared somewhere on First Earth under the influence of Saint Dane, and Bobby has left Courtney there to try and find him, though he soon finds out that success or failure in finding their lost friend may have even more serious repurcussions than just a single life.
Overall, I liked the book, and I'll probably go and read the last two next year. Even though I sort of spoiled myself a bit on Wikipedia...
27. Inkdeath, by Cornelia Funke
This is the final installment of the Inkheart series. Not sure if any of you have read it? They made a movie out of the first book, but I don't really remember much about it except they chose Brendan Frasier to play the dad, and it really wasn't his kind of part...
Anyway, the series is about Mo Folchart and his daughter, Meggie. Mo is a book doctor- he travels around with his daughter to fix books that are aging, peeling, falling apart, and generally displaying unpleasant adjectives that their owners would like to remedy. You soon discover, however, that Mo has another talent- when he reads aloud, he can bring the subjects and stories on the pages to life. He learned this the hard way when reading aloud from Inkheart caused several characters to be released into the real world, while his wife Resa was lost in the world of the book. In the first book, Mo has to deal with the villain Capricorn whom he so unwittingly released on the world, as well as the sad Dustfinger, who just wants to return to his story and family. By this third and final installment of the series, Mo and Meggie are in the story world themselves. They have been reunited with Resa, returned Dustfinger to his family, and defeated Capricorn, but the story no longer seems to be following the path set out for it by its author, Fenoglio, who has also been read into the story. Mo, in the form of the legendary Bluejay that Fenoglio has written songs and poems about, must vanquish a new host of villains that have arisen, or else risk losing his and his daughter's life to Death and her pale daughters.
Not sure if any of that made sense to someone unfamiliar with the series, so... sorry. I really like this last book, though. The author switches perspectives with each chapter, sometimes telling the story from Meggie's eyes, others from Mo's, Resa's, and even from some of the minor and bad characters. Once the story starts branching off, this means that the several different parts come in pieces that the reader gradually puts together, which is pretty cool. I spent most of the book trying to figure out how they were going to write the ending to this story, and whether it would be a completely happy one- the storyline leaves you in doubt of that right up to the end. I also thought it was interesting that the reader didn't have all the answers by the end of the book- there were still several loose ends left to speculation, though not so much as to be irritating. The major questions were answered, and enough else was solved, or at least insinuated, that I was pleased :)
So this book concludes the Pendragon portion of my list. This story takes Bobby to the territory of Ibara, where he is hoping to defeat the evil Saint Dane once and for all, but he finds some very unfortunate surprises in store for him. Saint Dane has been demonstrating his eagerness to mix items, lifeforms, and even people between the territories in the past several battles, but they are getting even more intense here on Ibara, and Bobby is in for even more sadness when he realizes that this territory is even more familiar than he first thought. Meanwhile, Bobby's friend Mark has disappeared somewhere on First Earth under the influence of Saint Dane, and Bobby has left Courtney there to try and find him, though he soon finds out that success or failure in finding their lost friend may have even more serious repurcussions than just a single life.
Overall, I liked the book, and I'll probably go and read the last two next year. Even though I sort of spoiled myself a bit on Wikipedia...
27. Inkdeath, by Cornelia Funke
This is the final installment of the Inkheart series. Not sure if any of you have read it? They made a movie out of the first book, but I don't really remember much about it except they chose Brendan Frasier to play the dad, and it really wasn't his kind of part...
Anyway, the series is about Mo Folchart and his daughter, Meggie. Mo is a book doctor- he travels around with his daughter to fix books that are aging, peeling, falling apart, and generally displaying unpleasant adjectives that their owners would like to remedy. You soon discover, however, that Mo has another talent- when he reads aloud, he can bring the subjects and stories on the pages to life. He learned this the hard way when reading aloud from Inkheart caused several characters to be released into the real world, while his wife Resa was lost in the world of the book. In the first book, Mo has to deal with the villain Capricorn whom he so unwittingly released on the world, as well as the sad Dustfinger, who just wants to return to his story and family. By this third and final installment of the series, Mo and Meggie are in the story world themselves. They have been reunited with Resa, returned Dustfinger to his family, and defeated Capricorn, but the story no longer seems to be following the path set out for it by its author, Fenoglio, who has also been read into the story. Mo, in the form of the legendary Bluejay that Fenoglio has written songs and poems about, must vanquish a new host of villains that have arisen, or else risk losing his and his daughter's life to Death and her pale daughters.
Not sure if any of that made sense to someone unfamiliar with the series, so... sorry. I really like this last book, though. The author switches perspectives with each chapter, sometimes telling the story from Meggie's eyes, others from Mo's, Resa's, and even from some of the minor and bad characters. Once the story starts branching off, this means that the several different parts come in pieces that the reader gradually puts together, which is pretty cool. I spent most of the book trying to figure out how they were going to write the ending to this story, and whether it would be a completely happy one- the storyline leaves you in doubt of that right up to the end. I also thought it was interesting that the reader didn't have all the answers by the end of the book- there were still several loose ends left to speculation, though not so much as to be irritating. The major questions were answered, and enough else was solved, or at least insinuated, that I was pleased :)
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