I think it was a month ago that I mentioned that I was reading Oblivion, the last in The Power of Five series. It's not that it took me that long to finish it, as it only took me a few days. And it's not that I was too busy to write a review. I mean I have been busy and I've written most of a novel since then but I could have found a spare few minutes to type something out. It's just that I don't want to. It's almost as if I'm waiting for the book to change, so that I can write a better review for it. But I've done basically nothing of use today so I thought I'd write this thing now, if only to get it out of the way.
As mentioned previously Oblivion is the fifth and last in Anthony Horowitz's The Power of Five series and it took long enough to get here. The previous book, Necropolis, was released in May 2009. I'm sure there's a good reason why there's such a gap but I can't say it did much for the reading experience. After I started Oblivion I became uncomfortably aware that I'd forgotten large amounts of what had happened in the previous books. While it did begin to filter back in there were a few things early on that didn't make any sense. As this is more of a personal problem I can't really fault the book for it so I merely mention it to give you some perspective on what I'm writing. Maybe some bits aren't necessary as bad as I make them out to be, maybe it's just my memory playing up.
The book is split into ten parts, eleven if you count the epilogue, and each focuses on one or more of the Five. As you might expect at the end of the last book they were all split up and sent to various places around the world. They've also, minor spoiler, been sent forward in time by several years and in the interim the world has gone to hell, which is always nice to see in books. The first section of the book focuses on Jamie, one of the twins that appeared in the third book Nightrise. Sadly you don't get to see things from his perspective. Instead he's got a narrator by the name of Holly following him around. Holly is one of those people who always annoy me in books. They seem vaguely baffled by everything around them and don't seem to serve any purpose except to be someone for something to happen to. Which is what you're supposed to look for in a narrator I suppose but it's still not quite what I was wanting. She also has the side effect of preventing us from getting Jamie's perspective on things. I don't think we hear what he has to say for the first section, which is a bit of a waste. I liked Jamie, who got on with things and did them with a minimum amount of whining. I suppose I should give Holly some slack seeing as most of the world has been destroyed but as most of that seems to have happened when she was too young to really remember I'm not sure that I really want to.
As far as storytelling goes Holly is my main gripe. We get to hear from everyone else as the novel progresses and their stories and methods are usually a lot more interesting. I was slightly annoyed that Matt, the main protagonist is the first and second books and the leader of the Five, didn't appear until page 263 but his section was so good that it was probably worth the wait. No, the rest of my concerns lie with the actual events of the novel and specifically the ending.
Let me put it this way, the ending was rushed. It didn't feel satisfying and it left me wanting more. Most of the novel had been a build up to it, playing pieces moving into position in a satisfying cerebral way. It was like watching some giant game of chess. You could see the general strategy and what they were trying to do but you were never quite sure whether they were going to accomplish it. When everything eventually does come to a climax, a climax that has been building for over 642 pages, it's over after only four pages. It's like pushing a bolder up a hill to drop it off a cliff then watching it tumbling through the air. It's what you wanted but it was over so quickly and the air offered no resistance and you wonder whether it was really worth it after all. Then comes the ending. It's...complicated. Or at least it's complicated to describe without revealing anything. Let me just say that I've seen a similar thing done with two other series and I'd say that both handled it better. It was just such a sudden transition from what we had before and it didn't seem to conform with what we had come to expect.
Then comes the epilogue, or envoi as it's called in a very prim sort of way, and we're back with our new best friend Holly again. Truly this character annoys me. She's got a narration style something like a mix between a teenager and an old, slightly senile granny. She basically rounds everything off and gives us a bit of detail on what happened to all the characters. Well, most of the characters. For some reason we never get to hear what happened to one of the best and most fleshed out characters that was in the book, and she did it in such a way to make me even more annoyed. The envio basically confirms what we could have guessed but it's nice to read it. I don't think that there shouldn't have been one, I just don't think that Holly should have been the one to give it. But again it could just be my disdain towards this character that makes me think like this.
There are a few other things that take the edge off the novel, so to speak. The bad guys are bad. That's it. Most of them don't seem to have any real reason except that they're greedy and want power. It might be nice to see someone who got in with the Old Ones for the right reasons but got corrupted. Instead only one character seems to be able to pull of being a moral grey area without appearing weak and he becomes all the more interesting because of it. Another gripe is that for some odd reason everyone has decided, through means unspecified, that they should get together and attack the Old Ones in some great Final Battle. While I'm all for the sentiment it appears as though most of the world is still unaware that they have anyone but themselves to blame for the troubles that they're facing. Even some of the people who turned up waving weapons in a generally enthusiastic way don't believe in them. Which kind of begs the question as to why they are there in the first place.
The last issue I want to talk about is religion. Usually I don't like bringing religion into reviews because I don't think that it is particularly relevant but as there are a lot of religion images central to this book I think it would be wrong not to give them a passing mention. And there are a lot of them in here. Anyone who was forced to sit through their school's Easter and Christmas assemblies would be able to notice that. The only thing is that Horowitz seems to want to have his cake and eat it to. The Five, and one especially, are portrayed in a Messiah-esque light with parallels that are obvious to anyone except the blind. However the rest of organised religion is seen as incompetent at best and downright evil at worst. I'm fairly sure that there was even a reference to Catholic priests abusing young boys at one point. Being religious myself in a happy-go-lucky kind of way I found the transition jarring. I'm not saying that some good points weren't made in context but if you are going to borrow heavily from anyone it's nice to have some acknowledgements that some of them are alright.
After ranting a bit in the previous paragraphs I should balance out this review by saying that it wasn't all bad. Actually the majority of it was pretty good. The action was enjoyable to read and the special powers that each of the Five had were used well and, this is important, were not just overused. Actually getting everyone into position for the final showdown was fun to read and built a lot of good anticipation.Chapter 8 was just beautiful and one of the best pieces of writing I think I've ever seen in my life. Seriously, anyone wanting to see what good writing is supposed to look like should go and read that chapter. It's a masterpiece. And there were interesting characters, Holly being the exception not the rule.
So would I recommend that you buy it? Well it depends. If you have read all the other book then yes, definitely. It will give you closure and put a end to a successful series. If you were just going to read it as a stand alone novel, putting aside that reading the fifth in a series is a terrible idea? Not sure. It is a good book and it might just be the years that I've been waiting for this that means that it can't possibly live up to what has been inside my head. But Anthony Horowitz is one of the most skilled writers of teenage fiction around at the moment and, while not being quite what I hoped for, this is a solid book. So I'd leave the decision for you. Personally I'd give it a rating of six out of ten for all the reasons I mentioned above and here's the Amazon link if you feel that you want to read it anyway.
