Friday, July 31, 2015

Phoenix Rising

In book 4 of the Andy Smithson series, Phoenix, Arizona, receives visitors from Oomladee for a change. Resurrection of the Phoenix's Grace by L. R. W. Lee sees the conflict crossing the magical border before Andy's Mom sends him back to Oomladee when the situation at home gets out of hand and way too dangerous.



Sending Andy back to Oomladee to safety might have been a good idea to start off with. Mom's idea of safety, though, seems slightly warped as Andy lands in a dangerous bog full of monsters. But each to his own. From there, the author leads the reader again through a perilous quest to discover new wonders in magical Oomladee.


The quest this time is more pressing and urgent than any of the previous ones as there is a damsel in distress to rescue. Any good story needs a beautiful princess, and she finally makes her appearance here. As Andy is still on pig headed mode, this rescue becomes way more complicated than it need be.


The book contains a bonus. The author has included a section at the back dedicated to the use of symbolism in his books. This would be a good idea, under normal circumstances. Here, though, it was done in such a slap-dash manner he could have saved himself the trouble of typing it.


It is nice to know that Alden means helper. If it does so anywhere outside of the author's mind. He forgot to include the language he took it from, the original form of the word, and its etymology. If that had been done, the section would have been most valuable.

Kellan Lutz

Putting this aside, the book is as good as any of its prequels. It's fun to read and keeps you going (most of the time except for the times you hit your head when Andy is once more hitting IQ 5 level). That it takes a woman to get him to move in the right direction should probably not come as a big surprise.


Further reading
Call the Unicorns
Serpent Quest
Here Be Dragons

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