Pendragon: #9 Raven Rise

The long Pendragon series is about to end. Its the penultimate book #9 Raven Rise and its getting ugly and its also getting dystopic. Which is my kind of good. Lets read,

Here is the summary of the book:

This is where it begins. The showdown for Halla. At stake is nothing less than all that ever was and all that will be. There's only one thing missing--Bobby Pendragon. While Bobby remains trapped on Ibara, the battle moves to his home territory: Second Earth. Mark Dimond and Courtney Chetwynde are left on their own to defend Second Earth agsinst the forces of Saint Dane. They must face off against a charismatic cult leader who has risen to power by revealing a shattering truth to the people of Earth: They are not alone. The Convergence has broken down the walls. The territories are on a collision course. The final phase of Saint Dane's quest to rule Halla is under way. And Bobby Pendragon is nowhere to be found.

The story starts after Bobby trapped himself and demonic Saint Dane on the tropical Ibara, yet it seems that his sacrifice was pointless for the Convergence has already begun. On Third Earth, Patrick wakes up to a dystopian future Earth. He meets up with Mark and Courtney in 1930 and they go to Second Earth to try and stop Saint Dane's plans. Nevva is disguised as Telleo (trying to get Bobby to fall in love with her; no luck) and lets a few minor details slip. Bobby then finds out that Saint Dane has escaped Ibara, and goes after his to his home territory Second Earth. A cult leader named Alexander Naymeer (an English idealist, brainwashed by Saint Dane) is creating chaos with Ravinia (the name of the cult). Bobby, Alder, Mark, and Courtney try to avoid the Ravinians while looking for the leader of the rebellion. In a giant battle known as the Bronx Massacre almost half the characters die or at least seem to be dead (leaving clinchers for the next book), and Saint Dane seems to have won. Yet the ending gives readers hope for Bobby and the travelers.

So literally all hell has broken loose. Although the previous book should be called for "where-all-hell-started-to-break-loose". D. J. Machale has completely discarded all the formula he used in the previous books and its chaotic and to some extent I've been expecting it since I began reading it, we'll take of this later. 

Bobby Pendragon is now grown and his decisions have not gotten any easier. The bond of friendships are still what make him such an endearing and flawed character. Halla is pretty chaotic and things are not as they are meant to be. That premise drives the book, shakes up former realities and brings us one step closer to understanding what is really going on in this Matrix-like world of adventure. (Just a ref. matrix is way better than this whole stuff)

Although the first few (I said few since this series is not my favourite) books were amazing and real pageturners, this one was a bit hard to keep up with. machales writing style was not top quality and quite repetitive. it was like the entire series led up to this one book and everybody was expecting it to go out with a bang but it turned out to have a quite weak plot and did not live up to the reputation of the series. This installment of Pendragon is both exhilarating and disappointing all at the same time. There is so much going on and so much to take in from the past books that the bulk of adventure from any one territory is muted, which disappoints me because I love the individual experiences on each of the territories. I still am lingering on the past descriptive genius of unique territories such as Cloral and Eelong! The cool part is that the story line all still works well and I could not put this book down.

I felt that this whole book was the lets watch the hero be stupid so that when he gets his act together later it will be more impressive part of the story. Now I can stand that for a chapter or two, but not a whole book. It got very old for me very quickly. All that you need form this book to get to the last one is a page or two on the few actions important to the plot. I do hope that the next book, the "hero has his act together". The battle is on in RAVEN RISE. The battle for Halla. The internal battle of Bobby Pendragon. The battle of the people of the territories. And the battle between Saint Dane and Pendragon. This is what it is all coming down to.

Bottom line is its good but don't waste your money borrow it from a friend.

Pendragon: #9 Raven Rise