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.