Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

I loved this series from the beginning. Atticus has a voice that carries, and it's this voice that has smoothed over thin plots and sometimes-thinner (and less-than connected) reasons for mayhem. But that rich and wonderful voice has been diluted. Eclipsed by a stronger, even better voice...that, I might accept. But diluted? No. Hearn is smothering his most engaging character while making room for narratives of far less value or resonance. Until the last quarter of the book, Atticus goes so far as to descend into the territory of "cute"--and that's always dangerous; rarely is it an acceptable substitute for the real thing. And that's the problem. I expected the real thing and got cute instead. It's like turning Luke Skywalker into jovial and slightly smarter Jar Jar Binks--unexpected, crazy unnecessary and immensely disappointing. The last fifty pages are the only ones worth reading, the only thing with anything at "stake." It's the only time anything of any real value actually happens in the book, and it's sad that the plot has to turn so suddenly and so sadly for the book to have any depth at all. Before those pages came along, though, I was seriously entertaining the idea of closing the book and not bothering to read any further--a heresy, I would have thought, prior to reading this volume in the series. But it had just gotten so BORING and so almighty shallow!!! Even a death that saddened me no end was better than continuing on the pablum road,so that should tell you just how bad it was to that point. Please please please, Mr. Hearn: cut the revolving-door dialogue and completely separate story lines. There's just not enough room in any one book to gloss over so much so quickly. Pick one person's story and TELL it with the depth and development it deserves. Instead of one book with three separate narratives, give us three books with a single character's in-depth development in each. For the depth this series needs to be exploring at this point in its mythology, the scatter-shot approach is just too unfocused and diffuse to end well.