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Jeremy Cummings's Reviews> The Dark Talent
The Dark Talent (Alcatraz, #5)
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** spoiler alert **
Okay, so the impact of the ending of this book was somewhat nullified by the publishing mess (Scholastic's refusal to publish book 5, Sanderson buying it back and republishing with Tor), but if you ignore that, this is brilliant. Consider what was done here:
Sanderson announces he's doing a five book middle grade series. The first book opens with a giant cluffhanger flashfoward that the narrator promises he'll get to by book five, all the while telling you that he's a failure and a horrible person. You don't believe it, because it just doesn't fit with the tone of the series for the narrator to be sacrificed on an altar, and anyway he's the fun protagonist and you can tell he's a good guy. So you read along in the series and you get to the fifth book, and everything is going fine. Then BAM! Suddenly in the last few chapters everything goes down. There's an altar, minus a few details (laser sharks, etc.), but Alcatraz really does fail in a pretty heartbreaking way. And then the series just...ends. That's it.
But then...after flipping the very last page, you find an envelope glued to the back cover (this didn't work out, but it's the original vision). Inside is a letter...from Bastille! Promising a book 6, from her perspective!
This level of playfulness is what makes the Alcatraz series just amazing. I really wish it could have played out better, but it's still cool in retrospect. And yes, there really is going to be a book 6. Eventually.
Sanderson announces he's doing a five book middle grade series. The first book opens with a giant cluffhanger flashfoward that the narrator promises he'll get to by book five, all the while telling you that he's a failure and a horrible person. You don't believe it, because it just doesn't fit with the tone of the series for the narrator to be sacrificed on an altar, and anyway he's the fun protagonist and you can tell he's a good guy. So you read along in the series and you get to the fifth book, and everything is going fine. Then BAM! Suddenly in the last few chapters everything goes down. There's an altar, minus a few details (laser sharks, etc.), but Alcatraz really does fail in a pretty heartbreaking way. And then the series just...ends. That's it.
But then...after flipping the very last page, you find an envelope glued to the back cover (this didn't work out, but it's the original vision). Inside is a letter...from Bastille! Promising a book 6, from her perspective!
This level of playfulness is what makes the Alcatraz series just amazing. I really wish it could have played out better, but it's still cool in retrospect. And yes, there really is going to be a book 6. Eventually.
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Reading Progress
Finished Reading
May 15, 2019
– Shelved
