I needed this book to be a satisfying conclusion to the series, and it just wasn't. I was very bored by the plot, which seemed a rehash of the previous book - oh my! Prosper is out to get me again! Cadel's character didn't really grow much, and his supposed moral dilemmas felt false and forced. Jinks tried to remind the reader of several characters from the first book for some reason, but I didn't remember them at all. I guess it was ok, since she only brought them up for one paragraph and then dropped it. And what was with Cadel's dream about Rex Austin and Raimo? The ending, oh, the ending. That was the worst. I suppose it means she might write another one, which would be unfortunate. But the openness and ambiguousness of it left me completely unsatisfied and annoyed. I feel for Cadel, I really do. He's been through a lot. But he was kind of a jerk to his foster parents and his friends in this one, when he is supposedly older and wiser. Even so, he needed some Prosper closure. He didn't get it, and neither did I. It's too bad. There were certain things that I was expecting when I read this one: bad things would happen and Cadel and Sonja's relationship would develop and grow. Bad things happened, in abundance, but they happened to the good guys, and to Sonja! And Sonja was not in a good percentage of the book! And, if you grow to love Cadel and his friends, as I did over the course of the series, you'd know that this is not something that Cadel could take lying down. Especially if it happened to his beloved friend Sonja! It seems to be a common trope for the hero to go through such a right of passage: strip all his friends and resources from that hero and see how he will react to his circumstances. And it is such a wonderful development in the series and his character that Cadel is the hero in the fullest and truest sense: doing the right thing even when others are screaming for him to do just the opposite. The only thing that I missed was from this book versus the first two was the wonderful rapport of Cadel and Sonja, since I didn't get to hear too many of their conversations or of his wonderful treatment of her. But this absence didn't detract from the book, since her influence was readily seen in the actions Cadel took to save them all and rid the world of Prosper English. Overall, I loved this book and I loved this series. To Catherine Jinks: PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE WRITE MORE EVIL GENIUS BOOKS! I WILL READ THEM ALL! YOUR WRITING IS FUNNY AND ENTERTAINING AND YOUR CHARACTERS ARE SOME OF THE BEST EVER!
What do You think about Teuflischer Held (2000)?
Maybe the beginning was boring, but the end was energetic- a cliff hanger!
—Kpreet
the ending was lame. why would you end a book like that?
—candy643
