The Pendragon Adventure

[Sasquatch171]

I personally doubt it the last book tied up all the lose ends.

[Pedro-ologist]

He authorized this PRE series by other authors. 3 books, describing life of travelers before bobby came along...

[bingo]

I'm not sure I'd really like to read that. Are they any good? Seem like companion books to me.

Also, I got the entire Pendragon series! Off the internet, but I couldn't keep waiting for them to show up at a bookstore.

Anyway, over the past couple days I finished Quillan Games, Pilgrims of Rayne and Raven Rise. I gotta say they were all great.

SPOILERS
Admittedly it was getting a bit desperate and vague and confusing in the end (the whole illusions - good and evil of Halla thing) but Uncle Press did say in the very first book that  Saint Dane would lose after he thought he won, so it would have to get pretty bad. And it totally did, but I loved it.

Things I loved ...

The idea of the Quillan games <-- it's just so quirky and odd and creepy at the same time
Mark <-- epicness. Just the whole Forge and Dado thing and Mark being the one who made it happen
IBARA <-- I SO DID NOT SEE IT COMING!! I didn't think it'd be Veelox at all! THAT WAS AWESOME!
Naymeer <-- I hated him, but the idea of him is intriguing. Dunno, it was cool.

Anyway, they were a really good read. All tense and everything. Although Saint Dane was like EVERYWHERE!

[Pedro-ologist]

I agree with everything...

So almost finished then!

They are companion books, read the 1st chapter of one...totally crap (i would use a stronger word here...)

[gatekeeper96]

i have the fisrt one, but i never got past the first chapter

[Sasquatch171]

those companion books are garbage. the last one The Soldiers of Hallais the best I think. At the beginning, it seemed like it couldn't end good for Bobby, and it did get a little confusing. I love the series though.

[gatekeeper96]

SPOILER

when SD hung the daddo, i really thought it was mark. i was so sad i was close to crying.

ENND SPOILER

[bingo]

Ooooh, ooh! I finally finished the entire series!

I'm gonna blurt out a SPOILER-FILLED review here, so if you haven't finished the series yet, skip this.

Pendragon has always been one of my favorite series. I'm not sure why. Let's face it - the beginning was a bit rusty (although I always did love "I hope you're reading this, Mark ...") and it didn't seem like it was going to shape up into a decent series.

But it did. I really love the different plots of each book, the territories, the way you never expect who Saint Dane is. I love Bobby's explanations of things (he annoys me sometimes but overall its amusing and easy to read) and I love the characters in the story, especially Mark and Courtney. It's odd because generally I wouldn't like those sort of characters but I really did. And generally I don't like Sci-Fi time and space sort of adventures, but I liked this. I guess its the plots and the way it was written.

For me, the series started getting better around The Never War. It was probably my favorite which was why I was so psyched when Courtney went back to First Earth for the whole Forge thing. I really liked Gunny, I liked Dodger. Starting the Never War the series just kept getting better, 'specially the plot.

(Allow me to insert a fangirly scream here over Ibara being Veelox, and Mark inventing the Dados.)

I didn't really take it all that seriously though (I mean, I liked reading it but I wouldn't consider myself a huge fan of the series) until Pilgrims of Rayne. After that, it was just epic. Raven Rise was a huge win, and with Soldiers of Halla, I just liked it.

Lemme say something. The whole series had this "this is the way it was meant to be" vibe. It was unexplained and didn't fit in with the Sci-Fi idea. Until Soldiers of Halla.

At first, I wasn't sold into the whole Solara explanation. Honestly, I thought it would be more likely that it would turn out to be something religion-related (Saint Dane being the Devil, trying to /prove/ that mankind are unfit, Bobby and the Travelers being guardian angels for mankind, Halla being God ... 'cause Halla is Allah backwards, geddit?)

But even so, I think the Solara explanation fit in really well. At first I didn't get it ... I thought it was a bit wonky, but as I continued with Soldiers of Halla, I began to /get/ it, you know? It really fit. It answered all the questions. And I liked it. I think Soldiers of Halla was a good book because it wasn't intense and shocking like Pilgrims of Rayne or Raven Rise - it just completed the series beautifully, and it was (despite all the action) kind of .. serene to read. It was very "this was the way it was meant to be" and it worked out well.

The ending, especially, I loved. There was something very nice about Bobby reading his own journals. It just made you want to go back and read Merchant of Death so badly. Although I found it a bit odd (was the whole thing with "more time" an illusion, in his head, did they erase time, did they fix everything? Wha?) but it was nice nevertheless, and kind of touching (but that might have been my sadness of having finished the series at last).

So it was cool. It gave the series (which started out as silly and a bit meaningless adventure-through-time-y vibe with fourteen-year-old Bobby) a nice ending with some substenance. It has also made me feel very sentimental about the phrase: And so we go. Hobey-ho.

All in all, ten books worth reading.

[Sasquatch171]

I couldn't agree more with Bingo. These books really kept me guessing. I really enjoy good conquering evil books.

[gatekeeper96]

i liek spader. he's just so funny and random

[Sasquatch171]

Yeah, he was one of my favorite characters. Plus, I thought Cloral was pretty awesome too.

[gatekeeper96]

i always thought that would be one of the coolest territories to live in. i just love the water

[Sasquatch171]

I thought Quillan could be pretty cool if it wasn't so screwed up.

[Pedro-ologist]

I want to move to Ibara. Tropical Island! Hello!!!

Another good thing about these books, is that you come away understanding what the author was trying to say. Unlike heaps of books (and often AH books too) where you come away with, good beats evil. But the whole series was a ethical battle, between Bobby and Saint Dane. And it made you really think about it...and end up agreeing with Bobby's point of view, and thinking that Saint Dane was horrible.

But it is easy to hear where Saint Dane was coming from (you should listen to my Grandad. He wants to send all the not so smart, useless people off to mars and just leave earth with 2 billion. Aka: A Saint Dane approach). That is what is good about these books...there is a very strong Premise

The only thing I dislike is the end. It makes no sense. 1 Page of explination at the very end would have made the last book almost perfect!

[Sasquatch171]

I think DJ Machale was trying to teach the reader a lesson with these books. Everybody should be able to live together in peace and harmony.