What I’ve Just Read: Queste

Actually, I finished this a couple of weeks ago–I’ve just been slow blogging about. Maybe because I don’t have much to say. If you liked the previous Septimus Heap books by Angie Sage, I’m sure you’ll like this one. If you haven’t read them, there’s not much point in reading this one.

I’ve enjoyed them all, but not quite as much as I think I should–and I’m saying this as someone who, despite my advanced age, still enjoys a good YA novel (and still hopes to write more of them, as well). I think the tone is just a little off for my taste–a little too flippant, a little too light, a little too…well, juvenile. The stakes never seem to feel to me to be quite as high as the author wants me to think they are; it all seems vaguely insubstantial, like a high school play–maybe a really good high school play, but still.

Oh, the plot? Well, Septimus gets tricked into going on the Queste that no Apprentice has ever returned from, which also happens to lead to the same place Princess Jenna needs to go to try to bring back Nicko and Snorri, who were trapped in time in the previous book. And…

…and that won’t make any sense if you haven’t read the previous books.

For a certain kind of tween-aged reader, all of these books would be great. For the reader I am–and, if I remember accurately, the reader I was even then–they’re okay, but nothing magically splendiferous.

Still…I’ll probably keep reading them, if Sage keeps writing them–and I suspect there’s little chance she’s planning to stop now.

Permanent link to this article: https://edwardwillett.com/2009/02/what-ive-just-read-queste-2/

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