![]() ![]() While the meditative pace this story's complexity calls for replaces the narrative drive of the earlier books, it brings other pleasures and creates a satisfying close for the series if indeed this is the end. But Jack is confronting a knottier lesson than before: the mystery of how joy and sorrow intertwine. Farmer's prose flows easily and the nuggets of action are as lively and unexpected as ever. When a draugr, the undead spirit of a wronged mermaid, is roused by the village priest's mystical bell, her need for justice sends Jack and his friends beyond Saxon lands to Notland, the kingdom of the fin folk, as they seek a way to lay the draugr to rest. The Islands of the Blessed by Nancy Farmer Gods, if theyre neglected, tend to fall asleep, but they never really go away. Jack, the apprentice bard, is now 14 and living with Thorgil, the surly shield maiden, and their mentor, the Bard, in his native village after the scarring experiences of their previous adventure. This final chapter of the trilogy begun in The Sea of Trolls gathers steam slowly, but has the same enchanting quirkiness of its predecessors. ![]()
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