Fun series finales

Last week, I was on vacation, and I got to read two books that finished young adult series I've been going through. The first is from a series that's been around awhile (I actually read the first book when I was in high school and didn't manage to track down the rest of the series), the Tomorrow series by John Marsden. Beginning with Tomorrow, When the War Began, it follows a group of Australian teenagers who go camping in the bush for a week and come back to find that their country has been invaded. I have found some of these books to be more compelling than others (for the first five, I like the odd numbered ones best, but the last two were both great), but they all have heavy action sequences and lots of blowing things up, interspersed with teenage romance and reflections on life, particularly ethics during war.

I spent the rest of the evening that I finished this book, and much of the next morning, moping in my head about how life was not "happily ever after" for Ellie and her friends. I also decided that, contrary to my earlier beliefs, I could not stop with this series and needed to track down the continuing trilogy that focuses on Ellie's life after the war.

The Other Side Of Dawn by John Marsden

My review

rating: 5 of 5 stars
This was an amazing end to the series,particularly in the realistic portrayal of how life can't go back to how it was before the war. My only criticism is that some of the close-knit friendships and relationships got cut off too quickly, which may be realistic but was still disappointing. I definitely need to track down the three books in the Ellie Chronicles to read, too.


The other series finisher (we think...) was the newly published The Last Olympian by Rick Riordan. Continues in the fun, action-filled Percy Jackson and the Olympians series that I particularly like for Percy's self-deprecatory heroism and the Greek mythology references flying left and right.

The Last Olympian by Rick Riordan

My review

rating: 4 of 5 stars
Awesome end to the series; does an especially nice job of bringing Percy back together with Annabeth and Grover in a way that hasn't been the same since The Lightning Thief. Probably (but unsurprisingly) the most action packed of the books, less running into gods in out-of-the-way places. Nicely concluded, but there could definitely be more on the way...


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