I’ve just re-read these books*. I actually read them all in the space of just over a week, which is not something often I do with series – usually, after finishing a book I want to read something different, so series tend to get spread over longer periods. But this time, as soon as I’d finished the first and the second book, I just wanted to keep going!
*Well, I’d only previously read the first book in its entirety; I had a bad habit when younger of skipping ahead a lot to read bits that were coming up and then losing interest and not finishing a book because I knew what was coming up.
The books are quite gripping, even though I’d read (most of) them before. Actually, I found I remembered just enough of the first two books that I often remembered something that was going to happen, but not the lead-up to it, which made me want to keep reading to see how the plot fit together.
But anyway, I think these books are very good. I loved The Divide when I read it for the first time (aged 13), but was disappointed when I re-read it a few years later. However, on this read I’ve come to the conclusion that it is a very good book — as are the other two — and I must have just been in the wrong reading mood last time I read it (perhaps I had too high expectations having previously loved it). With the first book especially, the pacing is very well done. The book builds up to a tense bit, then we switch to read about someone else’s viewpoint — which means you have to keep reading to get back to the character you were interested in. But the individual segments are short enough that it doesn’t get frustrating, having to read about someone else.
I really like the world in which the series is set. Basically, it’s a sort of back-to-front world, where mythical creatures like elves and griffins exist, and human beings are believed to be mythical, until a human boy named Felix finds himself in it. Science and magic are reversed — magic is a part of everyday life, but the people are amazed by things like electricity and magnetism — just like people in Felix’s world are by magic. As the series progresses we discover more parts of the world, with different landscapes and cultures. It may not be as well-developed as a world in some other fantasy stories – after all the whole series is only about 1000 pages — but it is fun, and I like how the author addresses questions like why everyone in the fantasy world speaks English. There are a host of great characters too.
The advantage of reading the whole trilogy in such a short space of time, is that is allows me to consider the series as a whole. I think before I read it as three different stories, just with the same characters and world. The stories are separate, in that each book is a complete story in itself — just leaving a loose end or two to set up the next story — but there are definitely common threads running through and developing through the series.
One main thing I noticed is that the prime motivations of the main antagonists in the series is mostly to make money, and whilst they are not afraid of exploiting others to do it, and resorting to violence and murder when necessary, they are not necessarily out-and-out evil. We also see the effects of introducing new technologies, which bring about good benefits but also have unintended (and unforeseen) consequences. One of the themes is that “progress” is not always good, or at least can sometimes be a mixed blessing.
I definitely liked the first book the best, but would recommend the whole series, especially as the later books tie up some loose ends/unexplained things from the earlier books (such as providing an explanation for why everyone in this fantasy world speaks English, which most portal fantasy books just take for granted).
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