This installment of the Wayward Children series is back in the Moors, but mostly about the characters going there and secondly about the general setting--the major characters (the Master and Dr. Bleak) are pretty much missing. But there's lots of action around Jack and Jill switching bodies, and Jack trying to set that right. Definitely an engaging read.
But like some others, I'm missing the aspects of searching for a Door that some of the other books have. These characters are longing for their doors, but it's an all-star show and they've all been through and been heroes in those worlds, saving them.The setting is both endlessly generative (alternate worlds that seem to have some relationship, and structure for how they are classified) and maybe a bit limiting. The worlds may seem very structured or highly arbitrary, but they are all simplified versions of the reality we live in, which is not expressly privileged in the books but sort of comes out that way by reflection in the alternates. So we could call where we are Reality in this series.
The well-spoken bickering is really pronounced in this one. There's a lot of one-uppy "you don't understand because you don't know arbitrary rule x from my special universe". There are often larger points at play, but platitudes seem pretty close to hand in these instances. I don't know, it's just perhaps a little tiring. Maybe time to bring this series to its exciting conclusion?
No comments:
Post a Comment