Earlier I reviewed Obernewtyn and The Farseekers by Isobelle Carmody, and lamented the lack of availability for the other books in the series. Well, I found a copy of book 3 (which had been published by Tor) at Half-Price Books, and bought it immediately.

If you’ll remember, we have Elspeth Gordie and her band of people who are Talented Misfits (slight mutants) after a nuclear holocaust they call the Great White. Against the Misfits we have the Herder Faction (a religious cult that worships Lud; they behave like crazy medieval Christians) and the Council (a centralized governing unit that is dedicated to cleaning up the stuff from the Great White, and dealing with Misfits). There is also a third sort of people, the rebels, who are against the Council and the Herders because they believe that the Herders are running the Council and forcing it to do bad things to the general citizenry.

In this book, Elspeth and a couple friends rescue a gypsy from burning, and then (based on a dream by a Futureteller) must return her to her family. This involves going to Sutrium, one of the major cities. Luckily there is a Talented base there, with a couple of former residents of Obernewtyn (the headquarters of the Talents). The rebel group there is also sympathetic, and Elspeth has been trying for an alliance with them. Once in Sutrium, Elspeth must find the gypsy’s family, and then deal with issues stemming from the rebels and their other allies.

This book did not feel like book 3 in a series to me. Yes, of course, there is about 500 pages’ worth of backstory, but the first two books seemed to be children’s books, at least nominally, and book 3 is for adults. While the narrator and the tone are much the same, the book is much longer (426 pages, in a tiny font) and much more complex. There are at least three story lines running at any given time: Elspeth seeking alliance with the rebels; Elspeth trying to stop slavery; Elspeth trying to understand her Grand Destiny(TM); Elspeth trying to ally with the gypsies, or at least pass for one; Elspeth and her Love Story . . . It’s a strangely dense book, and there are things happening on every page.

One puzzlement for me was the author’s choice of which particular storyline would be the one for the major denouement of the book. I guess it was the most action-packed and most imminent storyline, but it was one that was barely discussed for the first half of the book. The sympathetic rebel leader was asking Elspeth to come to a meeting of rebel leaders off and on for a hundred pages or so in the middle of the book, and then that storyline dominates.

Also, there is suddenly another country, Sador, introduced. Odd, I thought.

Back to my first point, though: other than the miles of backstory, without which this book would be quite confusing, this book read more like Book 1 of an adult epic fantasy trilogy. At the end of book 2, I believe there were only two small bits of unresolved-ness. At the end of this book, there are about 25.

As I said, the writing is much the same; the only difference is in the complexity of the plot. I did enjoy reading it, since I like the world and the characters (even if it is a tad derivative; see the other review), but I did not find it nearly as satisfying as the second book in the series. Here’s hoping I find book 4 sitting around somewhere! Ashling gets 3/5 stars.