In the continuing stories of Bobby Pendragon, this time around he has to save the ocean Territory of Cloral. It’s a fascinating world, where at some point in the long past, the world flooded such that everyone now lives in floating cities. They have all sorts of neat water based technology and what seems like a pretty peaceful, fun loving society. Of course things are about to go wrong.

Plotwise, things seem mostly straightforward. There’s a lost city (Farr; which of course turns out to be real ), pirates, and an ‘accidental’ plague (oh! the horrors of GMO foods!). Nothing super surprising, but still enough tension to pull you through the book.

Characterwise, I liked the new traveler from Cloral: Spader. He’s a lot of fun. I have a feeling he’s going to be trouble in future books–consumed by the need for revenge. We shall have to see. Bobby is growing up a bit and Uncle Press still doesn’t answer anything… And then that ending. Oy. Didn't quite expect him to end up dead so quickly...

That actually brings to mind one of my annoyances with this book. There are so many things that Bobby really needs to know, that he just doesn’t. Either because Uncle Press says that he’ll learn it in time or because he’s still just 14. Example: Why in the world would he assume transpire means ‘blow up’? /endrant. Also, Saint Dane’s motivation isn’t really explained. Still a rather flat baddie, evil for the sake of being evil. So it goes.

Overall though, it’s a solid book. I like seeing the greater universe unfold. Onwards!

In my few short years I learned that seeing what’s positive about a situation is a lot more fun and gets you a lot further than looking for what might be wrong with it.

Not a bad thought… at first read.