Peter Lerangis

This was fast paced and action packed and it was wickedly good. Unlike Alex Rider it's not overly sad and unlike Cherub - I like the main characters. As a reader, I relate to Amy but I love Dan's way of looking at things. They're a great team. Nellie, the au pair, is hilarious. She's laid back and loyal and can speak a seemingly million different languages. The rest of the Cahill family kind of suck, but what's an adventure story without a villain? Or ten? The plot is riveting - the mix of show more fiction and history is fascinating and I'm flying through the series. They're not particularly long - but then this kind of book never is - or at least never feels like it is. I can't wait to read the rest. 4.5 stars rounded up to 5.


I was thinking how good this was compared to the Sword Thief (which I consider to be one of the best in the series) and realised this is by the same author, Peter Lerangis. Clearly - Lerangis has talent. This was a fast ride with lots of history and action and clues. I like the work they have to put in to solve the puzzles and how they go about and Lerangis is very good at writing them. I don't know what's up with Alistar - he's a mess. Hamilton Holt is back! He's kind of becoming my favourite family member (besides Amy and Dan, of course). Although he didn't do as much in this one as he has in other books. Nellie - is she or isn't she? It's killing me not to know...
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This was fast paced and action packed and it was wickedly good. Unlike Alex Rider it's not overly sad and unlike Cherub - I like the main characters. As a reader, I relate to Amy but I love Dan's way of looking at things. They're a great team. Nellie, the au pair, is hilarious. She's laid back and loyal and can speak a seemingly million different languages. The rest of the Cahill family kind of suck, but what's an adventure story without a villain? Or ten? The plot is riveting - the mix of show more fiction and history is fascinating and I'm flying through the series. They're not particularly long - but then this kind of book never is - or at least never feels like it is. I can't wait to read the rest. 4.5 stars rounded up to 5.


There's a touch of romance in this between Ian Kabra and Amy. I like how the authors keep giving a little bit of insight in to each of the villains - in this one we read a bit of the story from Ian's point of view - and as much as he's bad he's not totally bad. More of Alistar's background and character is revealed - we learn his father was killed by his uncle (the brother's twin) and that he doesn't have a very good relationship with his uncle. Very intense, very fast paced, I may even go as far as to say, best one of the series yet.
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This book moves so fast! I read this series when I was a kid and the plot of Book 3 stuck with me so much that I didn't want to give the books up without giving them a reread in adulthood. I'm not sure I'll ever give it up now. Last Stop is a story about a boy who sees his missing/presumed dead father on a subway platform. He assumes its a hallucination but it feels super real and he has a pushy little female friend who urges him to pursue the lead seriously. The story is interspersed with show more dialogue and case files from these mysterious "Watchers." You have no idea what the Watchers are all about but it seems like they're interested in paranormal phenomena. This really reminded me of the TV show Fringe, though X-Files and Twilight Zone might be other good comparisons.

I loved how fast paced this book was and how realistic the characters were. I don't spend much time with kids so I'm not sure if it's realistic age-wise, but David our main character approaches everything with a realistic amount of skepticism, he doesn't talk about his feelings even though he has them, and he's willing to break a rule or two to serve his own interests. The kids also watch media, are aware of science fiction as a genre, have opinions about it, and react accordingly. The kids felt a bit edgy and cool, though the sidekick girl was definitely annoying. I had a lot of fun rereading this. show less

I have to say that I wasn't as much a fan of this installment as I was of the previous two. It was too sarcastic and phony. I think the whole dynamic of the Amy and Dan relationship took a sudden shift to accomodate an annoyingly sarcastic new Dan and Amy. I liked them more in the first two books. This one distorted characters and didn't feel like the same series. The whole cast was less likeable. I didn't feel like I was rooting for anyone here. I will say that I was impressed with the show more cooperation idea, but the whole thing had this undercurrent of falsity. I didn't feel as attached in this installment. show less