Keeper of the lost cities:
Lodestar
When I think of Shannon Messenger’s ‘Keeper of the Lost Cities’ series I secretly hope that this series never ends. I have been a fan of the series for nearly two years now and have read all the books and know what I expect from each passing book. After a year long wait for the next i.e. the fift book in the series I was overjoyed when ‘Lodestar’ was made available. It was first published in the year 2016 by Simon and Schuster. The genre of the book is fanstasy.
Shannon Messenger is an American authour, known for writing the middle grade series Keeper of the Lost Cities, which was a New York Times bestseller. She is also known for writing the Sky Fall series.
The main characters in this book are Sophie, the protagonist, Dex, Keefe, Fitz and Biana, her best friends, Black Swan, the group who made Sophie, Grady and Edaline, Sophie’s adoptive parents, some members of the Black Swan, the Neverseen, who is the antagonist group, Fintan, who is a part of the Neverseen, the leaders of dwarves, ogres, trolls and gnomes and the Council.
Plot - The Peace Summit is coming up between all the intelligent species. Now, Keefe has joined the Neverseen, playing a double agent. Prentice is now awake and the Black Swan found a mysterious symbol in his memories which might be the key to defeating them. Sophie is unsure whom to trust but she has to act fast to save the people she loves. She finds the Neverseen have their own Initiative and if she doesn’t stop it in time, they might finally be able to control her.
One good thing that I enjoyed in the series is the world building and the slowly escalating plot, which seems to get thicker and more complex by each book, keeping readers captivated and entertained. We get to learn more of the Lost Cities and its past and how it connects with the present. The book manages to top off all its predecessors in terms of the conflict in the plot-line and the extent at which both the Council and the Neverseen are willing to go.
Shannon Messenger has left me staring at the cover of her book with my jaw hanging whilst reading it. One surprise after another. That's what Lodestar was about. Not one character in this book hasn't changed in any way. But of course Messenger had to end Lodestar on a cliffhanger.
I liked reading the book. It was very engaging, but also very confusing at some points. There were a lot of twists and turns and lot of mysteries were answered in this book (and many weren’t). My favourite part was when Sophie found her human sister.
However, I felt that the author, this time round, did not put much effort in character development and any growth of the relationships between the characters. This aspect looked stagnant.
I recommend this book for readers of age 9-13. The next book in the series is ‘Keeper of the lost cities: Nightfall’, which is a continution of this book and is starting directly from where this one ends. I will tell more about in another write- up.
I rate this book 4.1 points of 5.