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Review #778 - Dated: 29th of June, 2005 Author: Tucker |
At last, the conclusion to the Karazan Quartet... the quest of Adam Equinox to find his destiny as Prince Zephyr, and his long-lost twin brother, Prince Zenith. With highs and low, heroes and hardships, this book concludes the tale... but I am very sorry to say, I was not impressed by the manner in which is was done.
This book, despite it's score, was a bit of a souffle who's oven was opened too soon... all that rising and build-up, only to suffer a sudden let-down right at the end. There was a lot of build up, but all the climaxes came suddenly, lasted not-long-at-all, and left me with a feeling of 'Hang on, there has to be more to it...'
This is still a good tale, but I feel a bit cheated by the abrupt endings all the way through, almost as if the author wanted to extend it out to a 5th volume, which would have been fitting, since the number 5 featured through the story as a key element of the magic. There was room to flesh it out a bit more and avoid the 'chinese food syndrome', where after half an hour you feel cheated becasue you have finished mulling it over and are still somewhat unsatisfied.
Overall, very sorry, but this one is a mixed blessing. It's a good end to a great tale, and most kids probably won't be overly worried by the holes and shortfalls, but this one is just a bit flat at the end, where all the plot elements flash-burn themselves out of the plot. Instead of 'tying up the loose threads' in a tidy bow... they get unceremoniously chopped off leaving story-stumps.
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