Arcadia
Ratings1
Average rating2
15
Ratings1
Average rating2
“Magnificent.” —Publishers Weekly (starred review) It’s a year and a half after the events of Anarchy—a novel hailed as “bewitchingly perplexing and supernaturally entertaining” (Kirkus Reviews)—and the world is alive with magic in this third astonishingly imaginative novel in the fantasy trilogy that began with Advent. On a tiny archipelago out of sight of the rest of the world lives Rory, a ten-year-old boy. He and his mother and a handful of survivors live an exhausting and precarious existence, entirely isolated. The sea is alive, and angry. Every man Rory can remember has been drowned. Everyone knows he’ll be next. One night, for the first time since the world changed and the curse descended, strangers appear on the island. They’re on their way to England, seeking a powerful magic ring. And one of them seems to know Rory by sight… Caught up in their quest, Rory enters an England of terrors and marvels, at the heart of which lies a place where journeys unimaginably longer and older than his will reach their end: Pendurra.
Reviews with the most likes.
Originally posted on bluchickenninja.com.
The first thing I liked about this book is that it is the third part of a series and you would never know it. As far as I can tell it doesn't make any references back to the previous books. In fact if it wasn't for the giant ‘3' on the spine you would think this was a standalone novel
I also liked the fact that there was mermaids in it. Now these are not the mermaids you would find in a Disney movie. These are proper lure men to their death mermaids. Or to be technical sirens as they are called in the book. It was nice reading about something you don't normally come across in fantasy novels. Or at least this is the first time I've read a fantasy book with mermaids in it.
The only thing that annoyed me with this book was the magic. I read on Wikipedia that this series was the author imagining what would happen if we had magic in a modern day setting. And I really wasn't keen on it. Now this can work brilliantly, for example in Harry Potter, but the magical world and non-magical parts were kept very separate. In this everything was mashed together, you have angels and mermaids and wizards but you also have electricity and superheroes and Top Gear. It felt weird all that being together.
Not to mention the characters looking for a magical ring who kept making references to Tolkien and talking about hobbits. It was all very strange.
