The Books of Magic

The Books of Magic John Ney Rieber

The Books of Magic: Bindings (1)
The Books of Magic: Summonings (2)
The Books of Magic: Reckonings (3)
The Books of Magic: Transformations (4)
The Books of Magic: Girl in the Box (5)
The Books of Magic: The Burning Girl (6)
The Books of Magic: Death after Death (7)

In her quest to get me to read comics, Erin gave me book 1, Bindings, for my birthday, and so, finishing the first and being me, I had to read the rest. (Yeah, I know, I’ve got a bad book addiction, but it could be worse.)

The fact that I have not read the initial The Books of Magic didn’t keep me from following the story, but I did frequently feel like I was missing something. (I vaguely remember coming across The Books of Magic somewhere, so I’ll have to see if I can find it.)

As a whole, the series is so-so. There were threads started and then apparently forgotten, leaving you to wonder what happened, and the last books just got really weird , leaving me more confused than anything else. Characters appeared, and then disappeared, and I never really felt like I understood why they were acting the way they did. Things happened for no reason, or for some strange reason that was never fully explained, and it was hard to understand why people acted they way they did, and more importantly how they ended up where they were.

It was mostly enjoyable, but I felt let down by the end of the series. There were so many interesting places the story could have gone, but didn’t.

ADDENDUM the First: Michael just finished reading the Book 7 and said, “I HATE the way that ended!” So I don’t think it was just me.

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