Black Water

I continue to be heartened by the overall improvements in this series over time. The plotting and characterization, while still not terrifically complex, have increasing internal consistency. In the present volume, Saint Dane's cleverness is more evident; the characters face wheels-within-wheels situations in which it is very difficult to know how to act with certainty and rectitude. Mark and Courtney play a much larger role, with larger consequences. Finishing this fifth book was the first time I was enthusiastic about picking up the next one. I hope that MacHale sustains this jump start and continues to improve through the remaining five books.

I thought it was incredibly annoying. (Warning: Rant following.)

It summarized way too much. I can understand stopping in book five to summarize books 1-4, but stopping every chapter to review what happened in the previous one?!? That's waaaaay too much. At points, it was as if the author had written the chapters decades apart and expected us to forget everything that had happened last chapter, so he could repeat it for us. At points, it even repeated information revealed a few sentances ago!! I believe the book would have been half as long if all that summarizing had been taken out. Occassionally it would repeat stuff from previous books, which was okay because I hadn't read the previous four and didn't mind the information. My show more aggravation may have been due, in part, to the fact that I had to listen to this book instead of reading it, and that always irritates me.

But!! It wasn't all annoying. As others before me have stated, the plot was convulted enough to keep me interested. And the characters were convincing enough. They spent too much time being worried, and Pendragon is /far/ too much of an idiot to have the fate of the world(s) depend on him, but I suppose I enjoyed it. It was okay, at least. I was interested enough to spend time bantering with my siblings about what the black water was, so I suppose that's a good sign. ^_^ show less

This series is amazing in that you feel so much like you're living the book...as everything begins to change and get more serious, you feel it.

Saint Dane is changing the rules. After toppling Veelox, the dark demon heads to Eelong, a world unlike anything Bobby could have prepared for. In this massive, jungle-like territory, the dominant species are intelligent predator cats that walk and talk and call themselves the klees. And on Eelong, they keep humans as pets.

But the food source on Eelong is failing, and Saint Dane is planning to unleash a deadly plague on both the cat-creatures and humans of Eelong. The only way to stop him may be to break the rules; to bring an antidote from another territory, a Traveler taboo. It is a dilemma show more that will change Bobby Pendragon's entire view of his duty and himself.

With Mark and Courtney brought into the action from Second Earth for the first time, the return of Travelers Gunny and Spader, and a host of brand new characters, culture concepts, and places, "Black Water" is another totally original tale in this hugely creative series.

But by the end, things are still looking bad, and the familiar territory of Zadaa may be next... show less

I tried. Really I did. But when you read as quickly as I do and realize that you've already spent more than a month on one book, it's time to move on.

I think most of my frustration with this book comes from the fact that Pendragon is a teenager and acts like it. He is hit in the face with a world where humanoid cats are the dominant species and humans are little more than animals and just cannot get it through his head. Over and over, he expects the world to work one way, despite all evidence to the contrary.

Perhaps someday I'll give the series another try.

Perhaps not.

So it goes.

I'm all about a good fantasy/adventure series, and I have worked my way through the first five and the beginning of the sixth book of this series. I want to like MacHale's Pendragon books because they revolve around an interesting idea: the ability to travel through space/time/whatever to fight the good fight against an evil man hell-bent on destroying Pendragon's world and all others within Halla. But I just can't get down with it. Does Bobby ever do anything right? Do all of MacHale's female heroines have to come across as shrewish and beastly? Gunny, Spader, Patrick Mac, and Bobby are all fairly laid back, friendly people. Loor, Aja, Kasha: shrews. After a while, the characterization gets frustrating and the fact that Bobby always show more seems to be doing the absolute WORST thing he possible could gets redundant. I feel like Riordan's Percy Jackson and the Olympians series is far superior to Pendragon. And with the Percy Jackson movie coming out in a month, kids and teens would do well to choose this more thrilling adventure series. show less

The fifth book in the Pendragon series, Black Water strays from the first four in one way which to me is very intriguing. Much like the past books, the central conflict revolves around two tribes of people, but on Black Water, the controlling group are human-sized, intelligent cats and the oppressed population are seemingly unintelligent mute humans. Fascinating.

Obviously, the conflict involves the human slaves rising up against their cat masters, but it is not that simple. The humans are not trying to destroy their masters, merely escape to a legendary, if not mythical, land referred to as Black Water. Saint Dane is of course there to wreak havoc and he does so by committing a Traveler sin - bringing items from one territory to show more another. Unfortunately, Saint Dane is not the only Traveler doing this. As a matter of fact, the "good guys" are doing something much worse.

I really enjoyed this story. The number of characters and their personalities were impressive, and the plot was interesting and more complex than I first thought it would be. show less

Wow. Things really kick into high gear as we visit the territory of Eelong... with Mark's acolytes actually in tow! Saint Dane ups the ante and starts causing even more trouble for Halla by starting to mix things from different territories. There is just SO much happening in this tome that writing it all out would take more than a couple of paragraphs :)



Lots of shocks, from the cat-like beings, to the humanoid quigs, to the attempted genocide of the "gars", to the involvement of various acolytes! Does it all blow up in the end? Well, yes and no. But just when you think you're there, twists and turns abound!



I'm really impressed that this series has held my attention for so long!