The Dire King

I'd been wondering for a while now about why The Dire King was called the final novel in the Jackaby series, and now I think I know. Hope I know, I should say, because it's really just a guess. I think it's intended to be the end of a story arc.

Well okay, it's absolutely the end of this story arc which takes place over four books and nearly a year in time. There's no question that this arc is finished, though the why of that I'm not going to reveal because it's a huge spoiler, one that had me gasping in shock. Oh yeah, it was that unexpected.

Briefly, the story picks up immediately after the end of Ghostly Echoes, and follows the characters through to the end of their mission to save the world from the Dire King and his plan to wrench show more open the veil between this world and the world of magic, allowing all manner of magical creatures, benign and otherwise, to flood the human world, presumably with some, ah, dire consequences.

While the identity of the Dire King is unknown, it did become increasingly simple to make an educated guess as to who he really was, making this not so much a mystery as an adventure story, and a darn good one as well. There's some great action sequences, and the usual dry humor that underlies all the Jackaby books no matter how dark the events become. As I've said before, Ritter walks a fine line, and does it well.

I wasn't certain, when I reached the end of the book, if the end of the arc meant the end of these stories of New Fiddleham and the bizarre and supernatural events that occur within and around it. (Shades of Sunnydale!) But the more I consider those last chapters, the more sure I am that Ritter has a lot more story to tell. Maybe he doesn't know it yet, but it's all there waiting for him, and so will I be.

I want more. show less

I read the first book in the series back when it was first released. I loved it but never got around to finishing the series. That is, until I had finally caught up on review copies for February and found myself looking for something new to read. There are so many books I could have chosen during this time – other series I have been meaning to finish, books that have been languishing on my shelves for over a decade. Yet, the Jackaby series is exactly what I needed at that point in time.

The series never takes itself too seriously. It is as raucous and bizarre as the synopsis indicates. At the same time, it is very much a story with heart. Jackaby is more than the odd detective with rare skills. He has a hidden soft side that you show more don’t really understand until the end of the second novel. Abigail has spunk, which is something you realize almost immediately but which never fails to impress throughout the series. Even better, every once in a while there would be a sentence so in keeping with some of the brouhaha in today’s society that I had to stop and marvel at its perfection. I found myself looking forward to these gems even as they continued to surprise me when I finally ran across one.

I went into reading these novels expecting silly fun with great characters and a good mystery. What I got out of them was so much more than that. They are reminders to love and accept one another in spite of or maybe even because of our differences. They are reminders to keep your mind and your heart open and to never fail to help someone in need. They are affirmations that we are more than the boundaries set by others and that we all deserve the chance to grow and shine. While still quirky and highly entertaining, they are also inspiring. Honestly, you cannot get much better than that. show less

“You are a good man. I’ve never known you to pick an unnecessary fight just because you knew you could win it, just as I’ve never seen you back down from a necessary one that you knew you could not. You never ask for glory, you don’t want people to chant your name-for goodness’ sake, none of us even knows your real name. We don’t need you to be good enough, sir. We just need you to keep being good.”

The Dire King is the fourth and final installment of the Jackaby series and I found myself taking my time reading through it, not wanting it to come to an end.

The battle between the Seelie and the Unseeliee, The Dire King and the earth, has come.

Jackaby, our lovable and snarky detective, shows a more venerable side of himself show more during this book. The fate of two worlds rests on his shoulders and he carries the weight with apprehension and mild confidence. Since the first book I’ve seen the struggle Jackaby has gone through being the Seer and The Dire King allows barriers to fall and we get our first good glimpse of what Jackaby is like behind the bravado and banter.

Abigail Rook. Ms Rook is my favorite kind of female lead. She’s strong and smart and has grown so, so much since the first book; both learning from and teaching Jackaby throughout her time in New Fiddleham. She’s also mild enough that she doesn’t completely take over the story and downplay the other characters.

With the oncoming war looming, The Dire King welcomes back a handful of favorite secondary characters: Charlie (of course), Mr. Hudson, and Lydia, along with new secondary characters that quickly get under your skin (in good and bad ways).

Through the series Jackaby’s motley crew has had a fare share of fights, but none as gruesome or as large scale as this full out war. Creatures pop up on both sides of the fight and add a colorful, kind of steampunk fairytale meets Tolkien-ish feel to the story. The plot is not as light and airy as the previous books, and defiantly takes a darker turn toward the quarter of the book, but the characters and charm of the world created by Ritter are never lost in the mayhem.

I hate that this is the final book, but it had a well placed ending that let readers know even though the books are ending, the story isn’t. I always like that in a conclusion instead of a long, drawn out piece. I hope Ritter has more for us up his sleeves for the future, just as amazing and magical as Jackaby. show less

The mayor has imprisoned every non-human being, and Jackaby bails them out, squeezing every last one of them into his house. And it’s a good thing, because he might need all of these magical beings to fight the Dire King and his own hoard of baddies. This is a complex “end” to this series, with new characters and lots of battle scenes, which I found boring and hard to follow in an audiobook. Turns out there is another book to the series, Rook, so it is not the “end” yet. Charlie’s story is developed here and perhaps we’ll learn more in Rook. This was my least favorite in the series.

I enjoyed this conclusion to the Jackaby series, though I was a bit overwhelmed at times by the sheer quantity of characters and names. Also, while there was a lot going on, at times it felt like nothing was actually happening... I think this book's biggest flaw, though, is that it got so much more serious than the first two installments of the series. Yes, this is war between the good guys and the bad guys, and yes this is possibly the end of the world, but the change in tone was a bit sad, since the humor is one of the things I enjoyed the most about the first two books.

(Addendum: I started listening to the audiobook version of this book, but had to switch to the ebook. The narrator has several moments where her inhalations sound like show more intentional gasps, but given that some of them make no sense in context I had to conclude that it was at least partially places where the editing team did not edit out the narrator's breathing. Instead of trying to determine which breaths were supposed to be gasps and which were merely breathing, I checked out the ebook from the library to finish the book. My review does not include this annoyance as part of the rating, but unlike the prior books I cannot fully recommend the audiobook for this specific installment of the series.) (audio = first 1/3, ebook = last 2/3) show less

(Originally reviewed at thelibraryladies.com.)

“Ghostly Echoes” did a nice job of tying together all the pieces methodicly laid out in the previous two books. More than that, it gave us some much needed history for many of our main characters, as well as, importantly, the villain. The stage was set, and all that remained was whether or not Ritter would be able to balance the light tone and quirkiness at the core of the series with this more serious plotline. The answer is mostly! While there are spots that I believe could have been improved or more fleshed out, I’m happy to report that I finished this book, and this series, pleasantly satisfied.

There was a lot to get done in this book. The supernatural world has been exposed to the show more general public, once and for all. The series “big bad” is gearing up to make its move. And there are two romantic plotlines that needed to be handled, both with fairly large obstacles standing in there way. Charlie is still a wanted man for this actions back in book one that exposed his identity as a shapeshifter. And now, in a city that is spooky at the barest hint of the strange, his position and future are all the more uncertain. And Jenny, while making great strides forward with her ability to function more fully in the living world, is still, well, a ghost.

After learning that his wife is a supernatural being who has been operating behind the scenes for years in the service of her villainous leader, the governor of New Fiddleham is not messing around. But with this new found belief comes fanaticism, and Abigail and Jackaby are horrified to see the city’s jail cells filling up with all manner of innocent, supernatural beings. It’s a literal witch hunt. I very much enjoyed this portion of the story. Many of the side characters we’ve met throughout this series were either already familiar with the supernatural world, or, for whatever reason, more open-minded to the positive aspects of these beings. Here, we see the negative side of humanity when confronted with beings they don’t understand, and I think this balance added a healthy dose of realism to a series that could, at times, veer into the twee with its characters.

I also very much enjoyed the exploration of the two main romantic plotlines to the story. Jenny and Jackaby’s relationship has been later to the show, and while I’m still not convinced that this was a necessary addition, I was pleasantly surprised with the way this played out. Importantly, Jackaby’s utter cluelessness wasn’t undercut by his being turned into a second romantic hero. While I may still have preferred the series to have left his character single in the more traditional “Sherlock Holmes” manner, I was satisfied with what Ritter did with him here.

Abigail and Charlie, however, have been slowly building towards this point throughout the series. They have had to confront not only the challenges of Charlie’s public image issues, but also explore the balance between their personal and professional lives. It was fun seeing these two work together on a case in this book, witnessing the fact that they work together not only as romantic interests, but as equals who respect what the other brings to the table.

The larger story, that of the Dire King himself, was also very intriguing. The fae world was blown out and we see that up to this point we, and the characters, have mostly been operating in a tiny slice of this strange and complicated world.

The story concludes on a bitter sweet and more serious note than I had expected. But I found this to be particularly refreshing. When I picked up this book, it took me a bit of time to again slip into the particular tone of this series. All four books have been written in a rather simple style, often playing with words and phrases in a comedic way. This style, while fun, also tends to undercut more serious moments in the story, and knowing that this was the conclusion to the series, I was a bit more put off my this lightness when dealing with these more serious issues. However, Ritter doesn’t shy away from consequences in this book, light writing tone or no light writing tone.

All in all, I very much enjoyed this book and the series as a whole. Definitely check it out if you enjoy re-imagingings of Sherlock Holmes type characters, and historical fantasy. The writing style is on the lighter side, however, something that may read as strange to fans of adult fiction. But keep an open mind! For all of its quirkiness, there are real monsters hidden in this text! show less

War changes things.

I'm not sure what it was about this one. Up until, literally, the last 3 pages, this was a 1 star read. It's a lot of build up and plodding through details and information. I didn't find any of the fight scenes interesting or compelling nor was I dazzled by the bad guys and their dastardly decisions.

But the end finally pulled it all together. The last few pages had wonderful lyrical quality and were beautiful. I was finally excited in the story and where it would go from there. I wonder if this is the end or if we'll be pulled into this world again. I would read another......I think.