Khaly and her family must work to solve the ancient riddles before the Sisters destroy the remaining Elementals and force the world to live under their brutal tyranny.In this final installment of Mechanical Dragons, the Underground’s greatest team pursues the Guild’s army to prevent the Sisters from instating a reign of pain and slavery.The Sisters and their Army intend to kill all those that … kill all those that oppose them and eliminate Elementals who will not submit, but first they need one last piece to solve an ancient puzzle. They must never find it.
Tired and frustrated the war has taken its toll on Khaly’s family. Armed with the journals and scribblings from the monuments, they must unravel the legends to discover what the Sisters already know. Beating the enemy to the treasure is the group’s only hope of success.
Khaly must work to keep her family together, amidst the bickering and squabbles brought out by the strain of war. Their individual skills are necessary to complete the difficult tasks ahead. If Khaly and the others fail, their world is forfeit, along with their lives.
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I read the Mechanical Dragons series by Bobbi Schemerhorn. This series was a delightful mix of modern suburbia and horse-and-sword fantasy.
I’ve debated how to write this review because on the one hand, I really loved it. But on the other, there are some things about it that really, really, really bugged me. So, I’m going to alternate positive and negative until I run out of items.
1. I really loved the mix of urban fantasy and horse-and-sword fantasy. And there was no crossing over into another world through some portal to accomplish that. It all happened in the same place, often with in miles of each other, but as a very obvious result of a previous war. At the beginning, I didn’t realize we would be spending so much time traveling by foot to go fight bad guys by hand. But it never felt off or contrived. The flow between the two very different styles of urban fantasy and horse-and-sword felt natural and was easily explained.
2. There was so much yelling! Like, really. The verbs yelled, screamed, and shouted were used more than any other dialogue tag. Including the good old invisible “said.” And frequently, that shouting and screaming occurred when they were trying to be sneaky! Be quiet or the monster will know we’re hiding behind the corner…why are you two yelling at each other? Now, occasionally it made sense since the next thing was that the guard DID notice them because of their screaming, and the skirmish commenced. But frequently, they weren’t noticed. And while I get that some personalities are more abrasive and sarcastic, some of these characters were just flat out mean and rude. While yelling at each other. This did get slightly better toward the end when we got to know them a bit better and they had years of experience in the war…but not much. Too many people had anger control issues. For real.
3. I LOVED the Mechanical Dragons. I love the story of their creation. I love their purpose within this world of magic. I loved their relationships with each other and their creator. I even loved their personalities. I want more stories of just them. Truly.
4. There are many series that are filled with mini-series of duets, trilogies, or quartets that have their own story arc, and then the next mini-series has all of the same characters, but a new story arc. (Personally, I think Nathan Lowell s the master at this.) But usually, I know to expect that. I was no expecting that with this series. Book four wraps up with the end of the war that we’ve been fighting this whole time. And the main group of characters all breaks up into happy couples to continue the good work on different continents. Great. I was happy where it ended. And then I started book five. This is the first book in the next war, with a new set of bad guys. Except books six-whatever aren’t written yet. And I am really, really, seriously unhappy with where book five ends. I highly suggest waiting until a few more books are written before you read book five. Go ahead and buy it…just don’t read it yet.
5. Oddly enough, I really liked that we started out the series with the main characters parents being alive. We got to see her having a great relationship with the two of them. And their love for each other. Of course, that made it harder when they were killed because main characters in fantasy must be orphans. ((smirk)) But I liked that we got so much of them before they had to leave.
Have you read this series? What did you think about it?