supercheesegirl

A solid ending to the series, but not up to the quality of his earlier books. I find myself feeling conflicted over Flanagan's depictions of female characters: on one hand, characters like Alyss and Evanlyn are smart, interesting, adventurous, awesome girls, but on the other hand, the male characters' reactions to anything the girls want to do is very old school (although the guys usually get over it and deal), and the girls' relationship with each other is strained with jealousy over the guys. Also, I found it kind of telling that Flanagan felt the need to end the series with weddings in the offing. So these kids aren't truly grown up until they're married? All of them are adults by now, fully trained in their chosen occupations. Evanlyn would need to get married at some point, of course, but that's certainly not a necessity for Will and Alyss. Not that I was disappointed in the book--Flanagan delivers a great adventure story--but it didn't hold up to his previous books for me, and I didn't love it as an ending to the series.