So, if you'll remember, my cousin bought the next
Seekers book, and I was able to borrow it from her to read it in the past couple of days. Just let me go ahead and say that my review isn't going to be very good(If you were around for
The Quest Begins review, this one isn't much better), so if you are one of those demented people who actually
like the
Seekers books(I kid), then you probably won't want to read the rest of this unless you REALLY want to read my humble take on it. For everyone else, read on!
Okay, so let me start out by saying that this book(Great Bear Lake) was far better than The Quest Begins, as it was written by one of the Erins, Cherith(Cue cheering) instead of T. Sutherland. As soon as I saw the "Special thanks to Cherith Baldry" in the devotion, I knew this was going to be better. And it was, to put it rather bluntly.
To save time, let me list my pros and cons, and then I will go into more detail.
PROS-
As I said before, this was written by Cherith, so you know it's going to be at least enjoyable.
Interesting bits from Toklo's perspective, I kind of enjoyed that. Also, I kind of liked the way the book covers all three bear's stories by giving their POVs from chapter to chapter.
An intriguing climax with some impudent bears that tried to take matters into their own hands when the food was running low.
The subplot of Taqqiq not wanting to go with Kallik was very interesting, not to mention unexpected.
CONS-
Well, Taqqiq's name annoys me. ;) Seriously, though, three Qs and no Us? Come on.
The whole bit about Ujurak and Toklo was stupid to me, how he runs into him again, and then how they fight and Toklo beats him? Huh?
Lusa reminded me too much of Hollyleaf, who I didn't like much. I have to take Toklo's stance; she was whiny and weak and very, very annoying.
Lame plot. If this weren't by the same authors and the same publisher, I would call it a total knockoff and not even read it. As Dovey says, "It's like they're doing a knockoff on themselves." While it was better than the previous book, it was still retarded.
The whole thing was just a front for a political agenda: Global warming and the whole green-awareness thing.
Okay, so now that I've listed those, I'm going to work backwards up the list on the stuff I want to hit. The first(Or last) thing was the political agenda. I'm just going to come out and say that I am not a supporter of global warming, and leave it at that.
I don't want to argue with you guys over this, it's just my personal opinion. But that's beside the point that you shouldn't put that in a book. Even if it was something I agreed with, I still think it would be stupid for them to make it a major theme in a children's book. Come on.
The plot here was really kind of lame, and reminded me too much of Brother Bear, that weird disney movie about a hunter that gets turned into a bear. Very similar themes and storylines, like, for example, the whole 'where the lights touch the earth' thing, and the animal spirits, and even the names of the characters(I didn't like Brother Bear, BTW).
Admittedly, there were some cool plot hooks, but the overlying story is kind of, well... stupid. It was better than the previous book, I can tell you that much, but it doesn't grab me and make me keep turning pages like Warriors does.
Anyways, I think that's about everything that I have to say about this book.
Overall, I'd give it... hmm... 3 out of 5. It was better than The Quest Begins, but not by much.
Until next time,
Ember
