Crown of Midnight by Sarah J. Maas

418 pages

"A line that should never be crossed is about to be breached.

It puts this entire castle in jeopardy--and the life of your friend.

From the throne of glass rules a king with a fist of iron and a soul black as pitch. Assassin Celaena Sardothien won a brutal contest to become his Champion. Yet Celaena is far from loyal to the crown. She hides her secret vigilantly; she knows that the man she serves is bent on evil.

Keeping up the deadly charade becomes increasingly difficult when Celaena realizes she is not the only one seeking justice. As she tries to untangle the mysteries buried deep within the glass castle, her closest relationships suffer. It seems no one is above questioning her allegiance--not the Crown Prince Dorian; not Chaol, the Captain of the Guard; not even her best friend, Nehemia, a foreign princess with a rebel heart.

Then, one terrible night, the secrets they have all been keeping lead to an unspeakable tragedy. As Celaena's world shatters, she will be forced to give up the very thing most precious to her and decide once and for all where her true loyalties lie...and whom she is ultimately willing to fight for." -Dust Jacket

Love, love LOVE this second book. There is so much that happens in this book and it takes you on an emotional rollercoaster full of highs and serious lows. Celaena goes through so much in this book and at first I was sort of annoyed with her. It's the typical boy kept a secret from her and she's mad so she punishes him when she's keeping secrets from him as well. But, like I said about the first book, she is a traumatized teenager who's asked to do some pretty messed up things and serve the man who killed her family and invaded her homeland. This complicates her feelings for Chaol and for Dorian. (I'm Team Chaol but Dorian is a close second.)

This is a great fantasy series. It's really well written and I can't wait to read it again. Unfortunately the last two books aren't out yet. There are some new elements that are introduced in this book that will be interesting to see how they develop. The biggest twist in this book was pretty predictable I thought. I have two objections: The author uses a four-letter word in this book that I don't think is necessary and she also references homosexuality which I didn't like either.

{Spoilers}

In this book, Celaena is doing the King's bidding and killing people that are apparently traitors to the crown, but she's walking a dangerous line because she's not actually killing them but helping them escape. She's trying to discover the secret to the King's power and learns that he has at least one Wyrdmark but might have more. The clock tower is one of them. He and several members of his cabinet wear black rings which somehow connects them.

Celaena and Chaol grow closer in this book and she plans an awesome birthday celebration for him. They are really cute together but their relationship is virtually destroyed when Chaol is captured and held as bait to draw Celaena out of the castle. Chaol's been keeping the secret that there was an anonymous tip that Nehemia's life was in danger. He knows that if he tells Celaena and word gets back to the king that the king will brand him a traitor. On the night that Celaena rescues Chaol, Nehemia is brutally murdered in the castle, and because Chaol knew about the threat, Celaena snaps and almost kills him. Dorian's newly-discovered magic is the only thing that saves him. Celaena can't forgive Chaol but Chaol continues to protect her. Celaena exacts revenge on the murderer and it creates this conundrum for Chaol. He loves her yet she's capable of so much darkness and violence. It's hard for him to reconcile the two sides of her.

Dorian has discovered that he has magic in his blood for some reason and this is a fact that will get him killed if his father ever finds out. He can't control it and it comes out when he's angry or scared. Celaena opens a portal to another world at the end of the book, trying to contact Nehemia, and Dorian has to help her close it. It's in this other world that Chaol sees Celaena transform into her true form--a Fae...and she can summon and breath fire. She's got fangs and everything. He doesn't know how to handle that knowledge but ultimately protects her yet again and sets a plan in motion that will send her back to the realm where the Fae still live. He convinces the king to send her to Wendlyn to kill the royal family. What he doesn't know is that the king has told Celaena that if she doesn't complete her missions he will kill Chaol and Nehemia's family. She's supposed to kill the royal family at a celebration and so she doesn't know how she's going to not kill them and keep Chaol alive. Chaol comes to see her off on the ship and Celaena whispers a date in his ear--it's the date her parents were killed and the date she snapped in Endovier. Chaol puts two and two together back and the castle, realizes that she's the rightful heir to the Terrasen throne (the pretty obvious plot twist), and that he's just sent her back to her people with dangerous information about his king that could destroy the kingdom he's fought to protect and given up his birthright for. Despite all they've been through, Celaena tells him that she'll always pick him. The interesting thing will be whether or not Aelin (Celaena's real name) will. (I seriously hope so.)

Celaena learns that Nehemia knew that she would die, even helped orchestrate it, so that Celaena would be forced down the path that she and Elena needed her to take. The assassin who was sent to kill her parents took her and trained her instead of killing her. Celaena vows to free Nehemia's homeland because she wants to prove she's not the coward Nehemia accused her of being.

Throne of Glass by Sarah J. Maas

404 pages

 "Nothing is a coincidence.
Everything has a purpose.
You were meant to come to this castle,
just as you were meant to be an assassin.

When magic has gone from the world, and a vicious king rules from his throne of glass, an assassin comes to the castle. She does not come to kill, but to win her freedom. If she can defeat twenty-three killers, thieves, and warriors in a competition to find the greatest assassin in the land, she will become the King's Champion and be released from prison.

Her name is Celaena Sardothien.

The Crown Prince will provoke her. The Captain of the Guard will protect her.

And a princess from a foreign land will become the one thing Celaena never thought she'd have again: a friend.

But something evil dwells in the castle--and it's there to kill. When her competitors start dying, horribly, one by one, Celaena's fight for freedom becomes a fight for survival--and a desperate quest to root out the source of the evil before it destroys the world." -Dust Jacket

A good friend told me that I had to read this series and I love it when a fellow reader recommends a good book. Fortunately, the first four books, plus a prequel, have already been published, so I won't have to be reading this series for years on end.

I flew through this book because I couldn't put it down. It starts with Dorian (the Crown Prince) and Chaol (Captain of the Guard and with a name I have no idea how to pronounce) going to find Celaena in a prison/salt mine where Celaena, the most feared and deadly assassin in the kingdom, has been a prisoner. She's been whipped and nearly starved and they offer her the chance for freedom. She agrees to compete to be the King's Champion and if she wins, after four years of service, she'll earn her freedom but they decide it's better for her to compete using an alias.

Of course, like with most books in this genre, there is a love triangle and Dorian and Chaol are both equally likable. One's the suave prince who can have any girl he wants but gets bored by most and has a good heart and the other's a strong captain with a sense of honor and a growing friendship and respect for Celaena. Dorian and Chaol have grown up together. There are some jealous moments between the two but the main element of the story is the competition and the evil lurking in the castle. Celaena has been trained by a group of assassins but she fears that one of them betrayed her which led to the death of a good friend and her being imprisoned. She's locked a lot of those memories away and doesn't really want to consider the possibilities of who might have laid the trap that ended with her capture. Dorian's father has rid the kingdom of magic, but it's not all gone.

Celaena is a strong character yet she's also a teenage girl which is always a good combination for these types of books. She has the skills to kill but she also has the insecurities and fears of an 18-year-old. She's been hurt and she hasn't dealt with that yet. I like that both of the guys are likable but not perfect. It'll be interesting to see where this story goes.

{Spoilers}

Celaena discovers a secret passageway in her bedroom and as she explores the tunnels it leads to, she finds a burial room of King Gavin and Queen Elena. There are wyrdmarks on the floor and ceiling which Celaena recognizes as also being on and around the clock tower. Elena's spirit appears and tells Celaena that she hasn't come there by accident, that she must become the King's Champion, and destroy the evil that's in the castle before it's too late. She also gives her an amulet to wear that offers her protection.

One of Celaena's competitors, Cain, is using dark magic to summon a creature that kills the other competitors and gives Cain their strength. She discovers him underneath the castle and is almost killed by the creature. Nehemia saves her life.

During the various trials, Celaena has been told to stay in the middle of the pack and not draw too much attention to herself. Cain wins almost every trial and Celaena knows that she's going to have to face him in the duels. She continues to train, spends time with Dorian and Chaol, and befriends Nehemia who is a princess from a land that's been conquered by the king. She's there under the guise of learning the language and customs of Adarlan but really she's there to get information that will help support the rebels working against the king.

Celaena faces Cain in the final duel but she's been drugged by Kaltain, an ambitious girl who has her eyes set on the prince and is using a duke to get to him, so she becomes disoriented and hallucinates. Dorian figures out what's going on and wants to stop the fight but he knows that if he does she'll be disqualified. Chaol also tries to help her by telling her over and over to get up. Cain attacks her, nearly killing her, but Elena appears and with Nehemia's help, they get rid of the evil Cain's summoned and the poison in Celaena's body. Celaena then defeats Cain and Chaol is forced to kill him when he tries to stab Celaena as she's being helped away.

Celaena becomes the King's Champion and breaks things off with Dorian because she realizes that she can't be the champion and be with him even though he loves her.

The 5th Wave by Rick Yancey

457 pages

"After the first wave, only darkness remains. After the second, only the lucky escape. And after the third, only the unlucky survive. After the fourth wave, only one rule applies: Trust no one.

Now it's the dawn of the fifth wave, and on a lonely stretch of highway, Cassie runs from them. The beings who only look human, who roam the countryside killing anyone they see. Who have scattered Earth's last survivors. To stay alone is to stay alive, Cassie believes, until she meets Evan Walker. Beguiling and mysterious, Evan may be Cassie's only hope for rescuing her brother--or even saving herself. But Cassie must choose: between trust and despair, between defiance and surrender, between life and death. To give up or to get up." -Dust Jacket

This is an interesting story. The idea of aliens wiping out humans in waves is interesting. The first wave wipes out the electricity, the second is natural disasters, the third is a devastating virus and the fourth is infiltrating humanity. The fifth wave involves indoctrinating children and turning them into soldiers. They're definitely thorough in their takeover of earth. The story shifts point of views between Cassie, Evan, and Ben. It kept me up really late one night as I couldn't put it down until it was finished. I liked the writing style and the sarcasm.

This one comes with a big BUT though. These types of books are mostly for young adult readers and there is a ton of language, including 3 or 4 "F" words. It wasn't just an occasional word, it was pretty in-your-face at times. I hated that. I hate getting sucked into a story and having to wade through language because I want to see how it ends rather than not read it, which would have been the right choice. My kids asked me if it was a good book and I had to give them the answer that I hate because it justifies it: "Yes, but..." It's like a "do as I say, not as I do" thing as I try to encourage them to stop reading books if they have junk in them. So, good book but there is a huge asterisk in recommending it. I will probably read the other two books but reluctantly. The nice thing is that in a month all of the books will be out so I don't have to wait for them.

{Spoilers}
Cassie has survived and lost her parents. Her brother is taken away with other children to a "safe haven" called Camp Haven. Cassie spends the book trying to keep her promise to find her brother, Sammy, who's 5. Her high school crush, Ben Parrish, meanwhile is at Camp Haven where he recovers from the virus and then is trained by who he thinks are human soldiers to fight the enemy. His squad consists of children. The youngest is seven, until Sammy is put in his group. They're given special equipment that helps them determine who is infected and and who is healthy.

Evan helps Cassie recover after being shot in the knee. Turns out, Evan's the one who shot her and is the one who's been hunting her for a long time. He's a Silencer, an alien assassin. The alien was implanted in him when he was a baby and awakened during the first wave. The aliens don't have a physical form but are more like a conscious being. They've all downloaded themselves into the master computer when they left their planet and so Evan's alien was uploaded into his brain when he was in the womb. So, he's human and not human. He has all of Evan's memories of growing up and his family. Evan falls in love with Cassie and can't kill her. He chooses to help her and turn against his own race. Cassie figures out who he is and is torn between the desire to kill him and the fact that she loves him too.

Ben figures out what's going on when he's sent out on his first mission. His squad wears a visor that lights up people with a green or red dot. They're tasked with killing people who are green but the people who are green are actually the ones that haven't been implanted by the aliens. Ben and Ringer, a squad member, cut out their implants. They've realized after finding one of their sergeants shooting at them from the rooftop, that their implants can be used to kill them with the simple push of a button.

Ben decides to go back to Camp Haven and get Sammy ("Nugget") and then escape. Cassie is also on her way to Camp Haven to rescue Sammy. Evan has told her that Camp Haven is the aliens' main base and provides her with a way to get in and out. Of course that plan goes awry. Cassie cuts her hair so she can get away with looking a lot younger and she's picked up by a school bus and processed by the aliens. While being connected to an alien program called Wonderland, which maps a person's brain, she attacks the doctor and goes in search of Sammy. She and Ben find Sammy at about the same time and Evan shows up to help them. He gives them a way out and then tells Cassie that he's going to do something. He promises to find her. That something is blow up Camp Haven with the aliens' own bombs. Ben's team helps them escape the destruction but you don't know if Evan made it out.

Salt to the Sea by Ruta Sepetys

378 pages

"Winter, 1945.

Four teenagers.

Four secrets.

Each one born of a different homeland; each one hunted, and haunted, by tragedy, lies...and war.

As thousands of desperate refugees flock to the coast in the midst of a Soviet advance, four paths converge, vying for passage aboard the Wilhelm Gustloff, a ship that promises safety and freedom.

Yet not all promises can be kept.

Inspired by the single greatest tragedy in maritime history, bestselling and award-winning author Reta Sepetys lifts the veil on a shockingly little-known casualty of World War II. An illuminating and life-affirming tale of heart and hope." -Dust Jacket

I read Between Shades of Gray (not to be confused with Fifty Shades of Gray which I haven't read) and I really liked it. It's a very sad, heartbreaking, yet beautifully written book, so when I saw this new one by the same author, I couldn't wait to read it. I also didn't know anything about the sinking of the Wilhelm Gustloff and that it was a much bigger disaster than the Titanic or the Lusitania.

Because this is based on a true story, you know that the boat is going to sink. A Russian submarine shot 3 torpedoes at it on the same day it left port in Germany. It was a ship that was designed to carry around 1,500 people and there were almost 10,000 on board that day, nearly 5,000 of them children. So as you read this book and see the four main characters' lives converge, you know they are headed for disaster and the gripping part is that you don't know what will happen to these characters--will they be the survivors or the victims?

This book shifts point of view between Emilia, Joanna, Alfred and Florian. They are each from a different country and their lives converge early on for Emilia, Joanna and Florian and not until the ship for Alfred. Alfred is a young Nazi and has some very offensive views about those with disabilities and the groups that Hitler persecuted. He goes around chanting a song about all the groups of people that Hitler hated. Because he's weak, he persecutes people to make himself seem more important. I really like that he writes mental letters to a girl he likes that make him appear to be important and then it's contrasted with really how insignificant he is in real life. The shifting points of view was the only way to write this book and have it be effective, especially considering that each of these people has a secret and some tragedy that they are concealing. The chapters are short because of the shifting points of view.

I think this is a really great read for older kids, like 6th grade and up. There was no language that I can recall and just enough tragedy to teach/remind kids of how horrific WWII was without being graphic. These are all teenage and young adult characters. I really liked the ending, but won't spoil it!

Five Kingdoms: Death Weavers by Brandon Mull

502 pages

"Since arriving in the Outskirts, Cole and his friends have fought monsters, challenged knights, and battled rampaging robots. But none of that has prepared them for Necronum.

In this haunting kingdom, it's hard to tell the living from the dead, and secret pacts carry terrifying dangers. Within Necronum lies the echolands, a way station for the departed, where the living seldom venture.

Still separated from his power, Cole must cross to the echolands and rely on his instincts to help rescue his friends. With enemies closing in, Cole risks losing everything to find the one thing that might save them." -Dust Jacket

This is the 4th book in the Five Kingdoms series. I like that Brandon Mull thought outside the box a little for this book. Each of the books takes place in one of the five kingdoms and each kingdom is so different from the previous one. Necronum is no exception. There were lot of things I'd forgotten from the previous books (that's the problem with having to wait a year plus in between books and not wanting to re-read them!). There are a lot of characters in this series and I probably should have looked them all up online to refresh my memory, although I could remember the main ones. I think a young reader would get lost in this story and not be able to follow all the back and forth between the mortal world and the echolands. As an adult, I liked that it made me have to think and keep track of things more than most kids' books do.

At the end of the book Mull writes a note to the reader saying that he's going to slow down his writing pace a bit and the final book in this series will come out fall 2017. I don't really like having to wait that long but at the same time I think it will really help him write a great conclusion. I think this book sort of showed that he's been rushed with publishing dates and the story and editing have suffered because of it. I'm anxious for the sequel to the Fablehaven series and hopefully that book with get the same consideration. I'm willing to wait longer if the end result is better.

{Spoilers}
Here is perhaps one of my favorite parts of this book and also one of the most disappointing: in what I thought was a genius move, Mull has Cole meet two of my favorite characters from the Beyonders series in the Hall of Glory--Drake and Ferrin. I cried at the end of the last Beyonders book because Mull killed off some favorite characters which I love and hate. To bring them back in this series as echoes was so cool...and then they don't get to do anything! Cole meets them and then they all split up and Cole doesn't go with Drake or Ferrin so the reader doesn't get to read more of them until Cole rescues them from prison and then that's it. I really wish that Drake and Ferrin would have gone with Cole. I think that was a huge mistake on Mull's part. For someone who hasn't read Beyonders they would have been two additional, interesting characters, but for someone who has, it would have been like a little treat within the story.

It'll be interesting to see how Cole uses his newly healed powers to defeat the torivors and the king in the final book. I think I might have to re-read the series before then so that I can remember everything that happened in the first four books. I read this one really fast because I'm really anxious to start my next book! I need a cathartic cry and I think it'll provide one.

Glass Sword by Victoria Aveyard

440 pages

"If there's one thing Mare Barrow knows, it's that she's different. Mare Barrow's blood is red--the color of common folk--but her Silver ability, the power to control lightning, has turned her into a weapon that the royal court tries to control.

The crown calls her an impossibility, a fake, but as she makes her escape from Maven, the prince--the friend--who betrayed her, Mare uncovers something startling: She is not the only one of her kind.

Pursued by Maven, now a vindictive king, Mare sets out to find and recruit other Red-and-Silver fighters to join in the struggle against her oppressors.

But Mare finds herself on a deadly path, at risk of becoming exactly the kind of monster she is trying to defeat.

Will she shatter under the weight of the lives that are the cost of rebellion? Or have treachery and betrayal hardened her forever?" -Dust Jacket

This is the second book in the Red Queen series. The ending really saved the whole book for me because for most of the book I found Mare to be annoyingly whiny and selfish. There's a lot of internal dialogue that gets so repetitive and obnoxious. She's got two great guys, three if you count her brother Shade, who do everything they can to help her and save her from herself and yet she keeps pushing them away, blaming them, or dismissing them. I think the author intentionally makes her unlikable so that what she does at the end of the book can redeem her and make you want to read the next book.

Maven is truly evil and yet Mare mourns the boy she thought he was and misses him. Cal misses the brother he once knew and they both want to kill him. There are some new characters introduced in this book and most of them have conveniently helpful powers. There's also a mysterious man who can see the future yet only offers very vague advice. Once Mare and her team start rescuing "newbloods," it reminded me of X-Men and bringing mutants to the school to save them and train them. Cal's like the Professor and Mare's like Magneto. She's out of control a lot of the time. She doesn't think through a lot of her actions and their consequences and then once she acts she spends a ton of time agonizing over the cost of her choices and then it's almost like she can't take responsibility or it will break her so she finds other people to blame. Rinse and repeat.

{Spoilers}

The book starts where Red Queen left off, with the Scarlet Guard rescuing Cal and Mare from execution. Cal is taken prisoner by the Scarlet Guard. They escape back to the ruins of Naercy only to face an aerial assault and Silvers on the ground. Mare's brother Shade, once thought to be dead, is alive and he has the ability to jump long distances and teleport to other places. He helps them escape to the sea where a submarine-type vessel awaits that takes them to the island of Tuck and a Colonel, who it turns out is Farley's dad, but there's no love lost between the two. Mare is reunited with her family who have escaped to Tuck.

Mare realizes that the Colonel is afraid of the newbloods and has locked Cal up in an underground bunker. She and Kilorn attempt to rescue him and it looks like Kilorn betrays her when he locks her in the cell with Cal. He's really helping them and breaks them out later on once they have the list of newbloods. They steal a jet and go off to rescue the people on the list who are Reds with Silver abilities. Maven is also hunting for the newbloods and when he beats Mare there he kills them and leaves notes behind for her telling her that he'll stop killing people if she comes back to him. She vows that she never will. She hides the notes from Cal but he knows that she has them and reads them when she thinks no one is watching. During one of their encounters with Maven, he uses a machine on her called a sounder that turns her own powers against her and leaves her with lightning scars and an "M" branded onto her skin. It nearly kills her and knocks her out for days, during which both Kilorn and Cal worry that she won't wake up.

Mare, Cal, Kilorn, Farley and Shade take the newbloods to a hideout in the mountains where they train them and help them master their abilities. On a mission to rescue more, they meet a man named Jon who can see the future and he tells them that they are facing a trap and that they must go to a lake and protect what they find there. What they find there is a girl named Cameron who can shut down the abilities of newbloods. She almost kills Mare because she doesn't know how to control herself. She's escaped from the prison where Maven and Queen Elara are holding Reds and Silvers who don't support the crown. Mare decides that they have to storm the prison and rescue the prisoners. They have a newblood named Nanny who can turn herself into anyone so she turns into Maven and they go to the prison. Mare loses control of herself and slaughters guards who were begging for mercy which makes Cal keep his distance. She also kills the queen. During their escape, Shade is killed while trying to save Mare. He and Farley are together and it alludes to the fact that Farley is pregnant. She's obviously heartbroken. Mare tells everyone that they're flying back to Tuck where she and the Colonel hatch a plan to save the 5,000 children who are being marched to the front lines and to also start a civil war by showing a video of the dead queen and inciting people to rise up against Maven. Throughout the whole book there's reference to "Command" which are the real people in charge but we never meet them. We do meet twins who come from a faraway republic where they say newbloods can live in peace. They want Mare to come and fight with them and offer the rest of them sanctuary. Mare realizes that there's a catch and that helping them might turn into replacing a Silver king with a newblood one which might not be any better.

Cal doesn't like what Mare's doing, but he also wants to save her from herself so he says he'll go with her. During their flight to the Choke, Maven has magnetrons bring down the jet. It turns into a cage as it falls from the sky. Cameron does her best to stop them but there are too many for her. Mare rushes at the magnetrons and they let her out of the cage where a strongarm is waiting to contain her. The magnetrons manipulate the cage so that everyone is shackled. Cal tries to burn through the bars with his fire but he's knocked unconscious. When Maven shows up, Mare realizes that she has to save Kilorn and Cal at any cost and so she makes a deal with Maven: she'll be his prisoner if he lets the others live. The epilogue is Mare being tortured into unconsciousness by the sounder day after day. Eventually Maven has her brought to the square where people can see her broken and controlled by him. He puts a collar on her that has a leash and forces her to kneel before him. He says that she put his mother on display and he will do the same to her. And that's where it ends!

Mare really doesn't appreciate what she has as far as friends go. Maven was a friend and potential husband to her in the first book and so his betrayal is that much harder for Mare. Cal has also been betrayed by her as well as betrayed her and yet they can't seem to let each other go. They are able to calm each other and they find comfort in each other's arms to chase away the nightmares they each face at night. They love each other but Mare is way too stubborn to admit it and to accept that Cal isn't going anywhere. She keeps thinking that he's going to leave her and that his loyalties will shift. I really like Cal. He's been forced to kill his father by the queen and he's lost his mother as well. He's been broken in so many ways and yet he still maintains his humanity and morality. I also really like Kilorn. Kilorn is her childhood friend who also loves her. He has no special abilities and so she's always trying to protect him which makes him angry. He's the first to forgive her for what she does at the prison and by the end she realizes that he should be able to make his own decisions and risk his own life.

I think Mare is a lot like Katniss. She's a young teenager who's traumatized by what she has to do and go through and so she acts in a way that to the reader seems irrational, but I'm not sure how anyone would cope with all of that and stay sane. She doesn't want to be a leader but she's thrust into that role. I had to remind myself of that throughout the book so that I didn't hate her. But, when she realizes that the only way to save her friends is to do the one thing she has vowed never to do--go back to Maven--she redeems herself big time. And then when you read what he subjects her to you can't help but feel incredibly sorry for her...and anxious for Cal and Kilorn to come and save her and destroy Maven.

Calamity by Brandon Sanderson

417 pages

"When Calamity lit up the sky, the Epics were born. David's fate has been tied to their villainy ever since that historic night. Steelheart killed his father. Firefight stole his heart. And now Regalia has turned his closest ally into a dangerous enemy.

David knew Prof's secret, and kept it even when the Reckoners' leader struggled to control the effects of his Epic powers. But facing Obliteration in Babilar was too much. Prof has now embraced his Epic destiny. He's disappeared into those murky shadows of menace Epics are infamous for the world over, and everyone knows there's no turning back...

But everyone is wrong. Redemption is possible for Epics--Megan proved it. They're not lost. Not completely. And David is just about crazy enough to face down the most powerful High Epic of all to get his friend back. Or die trying." -Dust Jacket

This is the 3rd book in The Reckoners series. Steelheart was a great twist on super heroes or super villains, to be more precise, and one of my favorite things about this series has been David's fascination with and knowledge of the Epics, not to mention their awesome names and abilities. He's like a walking encyclopedia and his knowledge has helped the Reckoners time and time again. The cultural references in this book are funny too. David thinks the word "groovy" is ridiculous yet his word of choice is "sparks." I will say that the ending of this series was a bit out there for me and I didn't really like the reference to a very famous superhero. It didn't ruin the series, but I sort of wish it would have ended differently.

{Spoilers}

The key to bringing down the Epics has always been discovering their fears. David was able to kill Steelheart because he wasn't afraid of him. It's also the key to saving them, by making them face their fears. That's what's helped Megan keep a grip on her humanity. In Firefight, David learned that Calamity is an Epic. Calamity tries to turn David into an Epic and David refuses but he's changed as a result of that encounter.

David and the Reckoners regroup after Babilar and seek out the help of Knighthawk, a man who's created a bunch of tech for the Reckoners using Epic cells. David is intent on saving Prof because he's certain that's what Prof would want him to do. His team isn't so sure because Prof will have to live with the guilt of knowing he's killed some of his friends. They think Prof would want them to kill him. The Reckoners track Prof to Ildithia, a city that is made of salt and constantly changing. Prof is there to carry out Regalia's plan--which turns out to be stealing Larcener's powers so that he can teleport to Calamity, kill him, and replace him.

David faces several Epics in Ildithia and Larcener, an Epic who can steal other Epics powers permanently just by touching them, hides out in their shelter. He turns out to be quite the coward. Megan's powers bring Firefight through to their reality from another reality and that's where things go a bit crazy. She opens up seams to several different realities during some of their fights and it's during one of these that David realizes that his father is alive in another reality and Steelheart is a good Epic there. In the end, they bring Prof back by finally discovering what his true fear is (failure) and David faces Calamity, convincing him that humanity doesn't need to be destroyed because the Epics are capable of being good and it's his presence that is forcing many of them to be bad. David's dad has powers in the other reality and David has revealed that he does too. His father teaches him to fly and they both wear a cape with an "S" on it. Does this mean that this is a Superman story? It's pretty hard to dismiss that reference which for some reason just makes this series end on a bit of a weird note for me. Maybe too, I compare this series to Sanderson's Mistborn series where the writing was so much more interesting. That's an adult fantasy series though where this one is designed for teenagers. This series was a fun read and pretty great for kids, with the exception of the ending which I don't think they'll understand.

Nikolas and the Pantheon Trials by Dallas Graham

386 pages

Somewhere in the mix of immortals, gods, thieves, giants, angels, charioteers, mythical beasts, saints, dwarves, and demons, the boy-thief, Nikolas, awakens from his unbelief to witness the Pantheon Trials—a dangerous, yearly competition of excellence between the gods of this world. And they are all there: the sun gods, the moon gods, the healing gods, and the trickster gods, the gods creating war and the gods calming the seas. But when Nikolas’ talent is discovered by a secret order of thieves among the gods, he begins to make critical choices that—for better and for worse—will follow him for the rest of his life. Nikolas and the Pantheon Trials is the first book in a new series (Nikolas, Night Thief) about the mythical, secretive origins of the boy-thief that will become known as Santa Claus. -Amazon description

I didn't get much reading done over the holidays and I think I read something in between The Boys in the Boat and this one, but now that I'm 40 my memory's crap and I can't remember!

My brother-in-law gave me this book to read. It's written by someone that they know, which I forgot until I talked to him about it after I was done. Keeping that in mind, I will be a little less critical and really my only criticism is that there were quite a few typos and errors in this book. That always bugs me because it usually implies that it was sent to press faster than it should have been and didn't get the proper proof-reading.

Having said that, overall this was an entertaining book. I don't read much mythology--I think the last I read in this genre was Percy Jackson so I could talk about it with my kids and that probably doesn't really count--so it was good to get a little refresher course in who some of the gods are. The author keeps you guessing about Nikolas's parentage, especially who his mother was and his father is pretty vague and aloof. There were enough other unknowns in this book to pique my interest and make me want to read the next one. I didn't know until reading the Amazon description that this is a Santa Claus origin story so that intrigues me as well. Well done for a new author.

I lent my brother-in-law Allegiant a year or two ago and I just barely got it back so I joked with him that he'll get this back sometime in 2018.