The Last Siege

Summary: A group of children sneak onto the grounds of a local ruined castle - the moat's the best place for sledding. Three of them - loner Emily, local troublemaker Simon, and the decidedly offbeat Marcus - decide to break into the castle to look around, at Marcus's urging. However, once they're inside, they decide to come back to spend the night... and then once they've begun defending the keep, how long can they hold out against the siege of adults come to take them home?

Review: I really enjoyed Stroud's Bartimaeus Trilogy, so I was expecting a lot more from this book than what it managed to deliver. The writing is on par with that of the trilogy: well-written, dry humor, and a feel for the rhythm of teenager's dialogue, but the show more storytelling aspect is woefully lacking. I kept expecting there to be something more going on than what was presented, something supernatural, or mysterious, or an interesting twist, at least, but it never materialized. Instead, it's a pretty straightforward story about a bunch of kids who break into a castle and don't want to come out, for reasons that are probably pretty familiar to most kids. Unfortunately, instead of feeling relatable, it just comes off as mundane and slightly boring, with plenty of action but not a lot of substantial plot or character development.

Recommendation: It might be of interest to kids who enjoy action-adventure stuff about sieges and battles (like Marcus), but there's not a lot more to it than that, and it failed to really capture my interest. show less

I had listened to The Last Siege before my local library withdrew it, but I remembered only that I'd liked it when I bought it at one of the Friends of the Library bookstores. I love history and would have enjoyed staying overnight in the partially ruined castle (not that I could have gotten in the way Emily, Simon, and Marcus did). The story is told in third person, from Emily's viewpoint. She and Simon are local. Simon comes from a family that is frequently in trouble with the law, although he hasn't been. Marcus is the outsider they meet when, along with other kids, they sneak into the castle grounds during winter, when it's closed to the public.

Marcus, with his love of history, makes the castle seem more than a familiar landmark show more that the others have seen during school field trips. His longing to get inside infects them. How they manage it without being caught by Mr. Harris, the cantankerous caretaker, takes up the first part of the story. Once they're inside, they find a room that has been restored, but empty. It's Emily's idea for them to spend one night in the castle -- a real adventure. (Mr. Harris did come in, but never found them. Emily's hiding place seems the most painful to me.)

They come prepared with wood, sleeping bags, food, and drink. Simon builds a fire in the room, then they close the door and explore some more. Marcus takes one of the pamphlet guides from the hut in the lobby. He tells the others about the castle, including the siege in which it was captured. It's an enthralling story.

Too bad they overslept. It's not such a big deal for Emily and Simon, but Marcus is terrified about how angry his father will be if he's late getting home. Still, they clean up as best they can before leaving.

A couple of days later, Emily is walking in the woods around the castle and runs into Simon. He saw a sign that someone was inside the ancient building, so they check. Yes, it's Marcus. He's run away from home and is camping in the castle. The story he tells about what happened to him after he got home arouses Simon and Emily's anger and sympathy. Too bad Marcus accidentally made it possible for his father to find him.

The three work together to secure the castle, hence the "last siege". Marcus comes up with some very ingenious ideas. The police, firefighters, and at least one social worker are trying to get them to come out. Simon doesn't trust the police at all. Janet, the social worker who talks to Marcus and Emily from outside, fails to reassure Emily that Marcus will be safe if he leaves.

The tension builds during the hours that the adults try to get in and get them. The descriptions of the cold and fleeing through corridors, arches, up stairs and down, especially in the unsafe parts (during a snow storm when much of the castle roof is gone), certainly kept my attention. I haven't read the Bartimaeus Trilogy, so I wasn't expecting this book to be anything like those books. Perhaps if I had, I would have been disappointed. As it was, I was proud of Emily for the way she handled the climax. show less

A delightful and well-delivered young adult novel from the author of The Bartimaeus Trilogy, The Last Siege plays with the conventions of fantasy while lightly skirting the genre. Stroud's characters are believable, which is important to the reader's experience, since they are not always credible. Indeed, a major strand of the novel involves the characters' evaluation of the others' reports about their own trustworthiness and experiences. The situation into which the teens are drawn is made plausible by Stroud's shaping of the narrative, and all three characters are largely sympathetic. Stroud may be forgiven a continuity flaw or two (early on, Emily's sled simply disappears from the tale). He picks his details well, and if you're not show more cold and exhausted by the end, you're not reading attentively enough. show less

In The Last Siege by Jonathan Stroud, it's winter vacation in the English countryside and Emily is bored. When she and local delinquent Simon meet Marcus, a boy their age with a passion for castles and sieges, they concoct the idea of getting into the local ruined castle and poking around a bit. This plan eventually morphs into an overnight stay at the castle (which is closed to the public). But Marcus has bigger plans than that, and his friends must soon decide where their loyalties lie.

This is well written, wry and intelligent, but somehow it doesn't go far enough. I kept waiting for the real story to begin, and then it was over. And rather less nicely than I had hoped it would turn out, too. It has a more modern twist to it, the show more kind that would be considered Psychologically Important and analyzed in a classroom—rather than savored by the reader. If it wasn't a rather short audiobook (six discs) and I didn't have some decent pockets of listening time after I started it, I don't know that I would have been motivated to finish.

And yet with all its shortcomings, this story has that quality about it that I first noticed in Stroud's Bartimaeus books: it gave me a hunger to go find another book, another series and swallow it whole, immerse myself in it, recapture a bit of what reading was like when I was a child and it wasn't a luxury, but a part of the everyday experience of life. A book that gives me a hunger for more books can't be that bad. But that desire is probably the most distinctive thing to me about this story. Meh. show less

This book was ok and I did enjoy reading it in a lazy kind of way, but not a lot happens for most of the story, and I never really felt much of a sense of danger or excitement that I was expecting from the synopsis. I liked the descriptions of the castle and setting, and found the shifting moods, loyalties, and motivations of the main characters interesting. The sense of that weird kind of fleeting but intense friendship that can develop between strangers in an unusual situation was this books strongest asset in my mind.

I agree with the other three reviews - a fair enough story, easy to read, and interesting teenage characters, but the promise of something more interesting than what ACTUALLY happens never amounts to anything more than an overnight stay in a cold and windy building. The storyline is basically one teen lying to his friends, which gets them into slightly more trouble with the local police than they bargained for, ending in the teens holing up in an abandoned castle while the frustrated and - quite rightly so - angry adults try to get them out.. Sadly, I think this story could have been better...

A trio of very different children meet and decide to break into an old castle and camp out there. These three teenagers don't really fit in with other kids and find themselves enjoying the feeling of togetherness. When Marcus returns the next day with bruises and blames his father they have to do something but is it the right something?

Not really what I expected having read the Bartimeaus trilogy but still a good read.