anachred

After Skulduggery Pleasant: Playing With Fire, I have been approaching sequels with a certain trepidition. One of the perils of open-ended series' is that the Dreaded Middle of any novel can so easily translate to a Series Sag. Artemis Fowl is a series I really respect for not falling into sameness and this most recent one was *really* *good* (though I've mentioned it before:

Garth Nix is a writer whose ideas are fabulous, though his writing strikes me as so-so. The Keys to the Kingdom series illustrates this in extreme: it's got a kid-series-without-deep-characters feel, and yet, the settings are really interesting, and the plotting is really good, so I keep on reading.

Superior Saturday
the penultimate story, has a feeling of acceleration that is welcome. Not only does one of the feared developments develop (to my glee, I was surprised to note, probably because it's going to make things so much more interesting) but the villain is not a characature, and the odds against the MC are quite stiff. (The characature nature is in line with the world-building, oddly enough, but still...)

Good luck, Mr. Nix! I'm depending upon you! (...and the gold-glowing Arthur Penhaligon.)



Flora Segunda...I can't remember some of the specific reservations I had with this first book. Basically there were some not-so-tight parts, or beginner-sounding writing.

Flora's Dare is solid, though.
And really, really enjoyable.
I was kind of afraid at the beginning, when a lot of the wacky stuff sounded a bit too straight-out-of-Now, that the oddball juxtaposition of the first was going to falter. It comes back from that wobble (to me: I'm sure it didn't bother most people) to be so much more than as good as the first. It is more clearly plotted, deftly characterized, and full of realistic fluctuations of situation. Flora definitely gains from her experiences, is both burdened and empowered by it, too.
Actually I closed the book with a pang of pleasure. I don't know when that's happened before, but the excitement than there was going to be another book, as well as satisfaction at the ending of this one was just about balanced.

Maybe for the King of Attolia. But there's no comparison to reading that book...we've got a different history.

So: Flora's Dare, definitely a "Go Out and Buy, with Previous Volume".

Keep it up, Ms. Wilce, and may you be strong to the race!