Thursday 29 July 2010

Necropolis by Anthony Horowitz

Four of the Five have been found and have come together in Peru. Just as they are about to leave the country to go off in search of the Fifth, they are attacked and their plans are thrown awry, forcing Matt to make decisions he would rather not have to make. Should he keep them all together or should he split them up? It seems whatever he does is doomed to fail. What use is finding the Fifth if the rest of the group is scattered to the winds? Meanwhile the Fifth, Scarlett, is fighting a destiny she does not yet know is hers while she tries to figure out what’s wrong with the world.

Necropolis is the fourth book in The Power of Five series. Again, this book shifts perspective as Scarlett is introduced and her tale is told. In itself, this wouldn’t have been a problem, but Horowitz not only switches between perspectives but sometimes goes backwards and forwards in time. This gets a little irritating as much of it seems repetitive. The story loses continuity and I can’t help but feel that it’s as if he wasn’t paying much attention to the book while he was writing it. It’s as if he had too many other things to think about to concentrate on making the novel a really good one. Almost as if he’s frankly just tired of writing the series and wants to get it over with so he can move on.

Having said that, it’s still a pretty good story and younger readers will certainly like it. Personally I don’t think it’s as good as the last two so it only gets 3 out of 5 from me.

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