Online Book Club Org – Professional Review

In summation, I'll partly quote my first two reviews in saying, "I felt that Basi did an excellent job [finishing off] the building blocks to what [turned out to be] a great series." Butterflies are wondrous creatures. They start life as cute little caterpillars before forming a shiny chrysalis, later emerging as beautiful butterflies, with new wings, antennae, and eyes. Unfortunately, the residents of Block Seven were not so lucky, for they were not rescued in book two of the Blocks series, so they didn’t get a brilliant emergence. That’s where book three comes in. Blocks III , written by Tara Basi, starts off a quarter century after the events in Blocks II . Battery Boy, Stuff, Jugger, and Pinkie are no longer pre-adults, but are middle-aged adults, while Mina and Tress are headed for their senior years. Things did not turn out the way the sextet wanted at the end of Blocks II , and Mina, Tress, and Battery Boy are struggling with their lives, while Stuff, Jugger, and Pinkie have chosen to make lemonade out of lemons. The group is called out of its complacency, though, when Eva meets with them to let them know that she needs several of them to return to planet Earth to make sure that the Earth Travel-Way (something like a gateway between worlds) is destroyed. Will their trip be a success, and if so, how will it affect life on Eden? And what about the billions of people still suffering in Block Seven? Will they ever be rescued? You'll have to read the thrilling conclusion to this saga to find out. Now, I'll admit that I was pretty perturbed when I realized that this book took place so far in the future. The people I'd come to know and love were much older versions of themselves, and I mourned the loss of their younger selves. It was a really, really rough transition for me, and I actually found myself needing to take a day away from reading to mourn. Once I got back into the book, though, it was as gripping a story as I'd expected. After a few weeks to breathe, I was right back on that blocky roller coaster, screaming my way through all of the bends and twists and turns. Truculent and Harder had also changed, both of them enjoying promotions, thereby multiplying their power trips. Even though they seemed to be on the same side at the beginning of the book, they were soon on opposing sides and readying for a war. Meanwhile, Stuff had to figure out how he could possibly explain the web of lies they were living to his wife, Martha, a staunch Eva supporter. He would have to get her believe in the hellacious life they'd lived before and were forced to forget in order to convince her to live outside of the monolith since the terrible block conditions may return. Mina, Tress, and Battery Boy, on the other hand, were at odds with each other as well, so they had to learn to work together to complete their mission. The worlds in Blocks III had been pretty much established in book two, so there wasn't much world building to do, but Basi did an excellent job describing the few new locations in the book. In addition, the aliens' technology was expounded on a bit more if not fully explained. There were a number of new characters in this book too, including Daisy, Ted, Angela, and Thumper. I felt they were all great additions to the story, but I really liked reading about Stuff's children, Ben and Lilly; their inclusion helped to ease the sting of losing 25 years a little bit. Trinity, the computer system housed in a robotlike body, was also around in various forms - being a program, she wasn't relegated to just one figure. I liked the original Trinity as much as ever, and, with equal fervor, hated the stolen Trinity software - renamed "Thump" - that Truculent used. Jugger and Pinkie, two characters I'd never really warmed to, weren't around nearly as much, so I found that to be a positive as well. As good as the conclusion to this series was, I wasn't quite as satisfied as I thought I'd be. For one, the climax was somewhat anticlimactic. I was hoping for something major, but what I got was a minor stunt that, while very meaningful, left me still wanting. It was like the difference between a major explosion and a Fourth of July sparkler, with this apex being the latter. After two and three-quarter books, I felt like Basi kind of dialed it in during the final quarter of this tome. I was also left with a LOT of questions when I'd gotten to "The End." While I realized that no book truly answers all of the queries it raises, I thought that this one had a few too many loose ends. I am hopeful that the author has a prequel, or even some supplementary books, in mind. Another thing that left a slightly bad taste in my mouth was that the book didn't seem to be as well edited as its precursors. The errors were mostly a number of typos and a few inconsistencies. Though the grammatical errors weren't too distracting, there were still too many for a book of this one's length, even though it was far longer than the other two volumes. In summation, I'll partly quote my first two reviews in saying, "I felt that Basi did an excellent job [finishing off] the building blocks to what [turned out to be] a great series."