Well, it finally arrived. It seems like its been a long time since I read the first book. I have to admit that I did not re-read the first two books, so I came in to this one having to play a bit of catch up. Let’s get to it.

I found that this book had a lot of information, but it seemed to drag a bit. There was a bit of establishment of where we are after the last book. We are several years removed from the events of The Twelve, so we’ve skipped over much of the early re-building of civilization. That was actually a plus.

I enjoyed Fanning’s story quite a bit, it just felt like a different book. We could’ve understood Fanning’s motivations later in the story, without going so deep into his background. It felt out of place, albeit well done.

And speaking of dragging, I did not like the dream state of Carter and Amy. Maybe I had a hard time getting the point of it ( I know it was a safe place for them to communicate- for them to be human again in a way) but I don’t think the amount of time we spent in this space was necessary. Maybe a more straightforward form of telepathic communication would have been better for me.

I did like the jump ahead to humanity going back to re-settle North America. It was an interesting take on the whole apocalyptic state of the world. But again, and this is clearly a trend, I felt that it went on too long. You knew that Logan would in some way be connected to one of the “founding families”, but I didn’t need to know so much about his immediate history. Particularly when you are at the end of the story and trying to wrap things up. The ending with Amy was great, but the lead up to it was just too long.

I guess that’s my overall impression- great story but too long. It wasn’t boring, but it was just long enough for me to get impatient, both with Fanning’s story and with Logan’s.

Lilypad Rating:  out of 5