An Author's Odyssey (The Land of Stories, #5) in Tнe Lαɴd oғ Sтorιeѕ Groυp

Aug 01, 2016 Karen rated it really liked it

I breezed thru the fifth entry in Colfer’s Land of Stories series and can’t wait for the next one. At the end of the last book, the Masked Man had taken over the Fairy Tale World with the help of literary villains Captain Hook, the Queen of Hearts from Alice in Wonderland, and the Wicked Witch of the West and their minions. Now 15 year-old twins Connor and Alex (a girl who just happens to be the new Fairy Godmother) must travel into Connor’s short stories to recruit their own army to liberate th ...more

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Jul 31, 2016 Zachary Flye rated it it was amazing

Review:

Protagonists: Alex and Conner Bailey once again face a great challenge. After their Uncle Lloyd, also known as the Masked Man, unleashes an army of literary villains and takes over the Land of Stories, the only and best chance the twins have to save the land is to recruit characters from Conner's stories that he wrote based around his adventures, but as they explore these stories to help take back the Fairy Tale Land they love, something far more sinister is going on back in the fairytale Review:

Protagonists: Alex and Conner Bailey once again face a great challenge. After their Uncle Lloyd, also known as the Masked Man, unleashes an army of literary villains and takes over the Land of Stories, the only and best chance the twins have to save the land is to recruit characters from Conner's stories that he wrote based around his adventures, but as they explore these stories to help take back the Fairy Tale Land they love, something far more sinister is going on back in the fairytale world and who knows if they'll be back in time to save everyone. One of the things that I loved about this book is how much is revealed about these characters, specifically Conner, as the twins traverse his stories. At first, the stories have a very shallow, although exciting premise, but as they continue their travels more about who Conner is, his experiences and feelings about his life reveal themselves in elements of his stories. There are many third-person perspectives in this story, each with great development and character building, but, as the title suggests, if this book belongs to one POV it's Conner Bailey.

World Building: I was a bit apprehensive going into this book. The charm and hook of the previous installments of this book relied on two characters traversing classic stories and interacting with this author's versions of the classic characters that inhabit them. However, this book, on a whole, deals with new characters that were created in the mind of Conner Bailey, one of the main characters of this book. Keeping that in mind I was anxious to see how I would like traversing into unknown territory in a series as connected to classic characters as this one is. It turns out... I LOVED IT! Don't get me wrong, there were some trippy moments in the stories, but that had more to do with the fact that many of the characters in these stories are based on the fairy tale characters we already know, such as Goldilocks, Jack, Queen Red, and more. There are also moments with other characters, continuing Bree's storyline from the previous book, seeing (Not-Yet-King) Arthur again, and even learning what the royals and rebels have been up to since the hostile takeover.

Predictability: Normally these books have a good balance of the predictable and the unpredictable. However, I was almost pleased to see that this book had far more twists than I was expecting and many of them were very unpredictable. I love how this author mixes foreshadowing and cliches and still manages to have so many things be as unpredictable as they are. There are many times when I knew that something was meant to always be a surprise, and others when once the twist had come that you could almost follow a trail of breadcrumbs back to where it was first foreshadowed. I loved every twisty moment of this book but there were predictable moments that I know weren't meant to be a surprise that found a way to impact me in a similar, though not the same, way as even the most shocking twist.

Ending: As this story got closer and closer to the end it became perfectly apparent that while this book was at one point meant to be the finale of this series, it isn't so anymore. Granted I'm sure there was probably a tweet or blog post that announced that this was not the end, but I never saw it, so I have a very mixed feel on this ending. On the one hand I'm a bit upset that I thought going into this book that it was going to be the end, however, I'm overjoyed that we're going to get more books in this fantastic series. The final climax of this book was awesome and provided some much-needed information and closure for one character in particular and then we have an ending that if you hadn't gotten the memo by then surely told you that this isn't the final book due to the tremendous cliffhanger at the end.

Rating:

It's funny looking back how similar this book is with the previous installment, however, that book felt almost like filler whereas this book definitely had the feeling of getting ready for one last battle that will decide the fate of all realms. ...more

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Jan 04, 2017 Janett rated it it was amazing

It was such a marvelous and beautiful book... ugh. My heart. I normally say this stuff about romantic novels and this was full of action but... I just love these books with all my heart, they are so so so special to me.

I'll just say the things I didn't like first so I can fangirl about it with mouth any complaints after.

Where was Froggy in this entire book!? He's my favorite character ever and he just was dismissed in that mirror and oh god!!! I missed him so much! Specially since we only have It was such a marvelous and beautiful book... ugh. My heart. I normally say this stuff about romantic novels and this was full of action but... I just love these books with all my heart, they are so so so special to me.

I'll just say the things I didn't like first so I can fangirl about it with mouth any complaints after.

Where was Froggy in this entire book!? He's my favorite character ever and he just was dismissed in that mirror and oh god!!! I missed him so much! Specially since we only have one book left (heeelp).

Even though I adooooored all of Conner's stories, I kinda grew a little bit tired (and just a little) about having to enter a new world with new character every 100 pages. But I loved every story, specially the Ziblings one, maybe because it was the one with more meaning to Conner.

And I found these endings (the ones from the fourth and fifth book) a little bit... abrupt? Definitely this one's better than the previous, but it's just building to the final battle in the Otherworld and I'm not sure that's bad, but it just feels like a really big book. I mean, we've been talking about this battle between worlds since the second book, but that one and the third I felt had an ending with more closure... idk.

Back to this book: I loved this book since the prologue, I honestly thought Miss Peters was going to go with them, but oh well, you can't have every cool lady going along with the twins.

I loved that Conner's characters and stories had a res ambulance with the people he knows. It held such a big message for any person who writes or wants to. I really did feel I was reading Conner and I have to say he's an amazing author, and that really made me sentimental because both brothers are so damn talented... ugh! I'm crying.

What's this Medusa monster that turned everyone into stone!? How did it get there?! Who brought it?! I don't remember it being in the third book! I know someone is going to... unfreeze(?) all the royals and the rest, but how!?

Will Conner and Bree will be love birds again? Will Arthur (soon to be king), Mother Goose and Merlin will go back to help Alex? Are Alex and Arthur going to end up together!? Someone please say yes! Ugh!

I'm really scared of the witches and what they plan yo do with Alex... that ending man! That's no way to end books, Colfer! Ugh! Where did Alex go to!? Is she with Morina!? What's going to happen in New York!? Ahhhh!

I bet that Blissworm will have something to do with curing Alex. And I can't wait to see everyone in action.

I still find the Bookhuggers annoying and without a purpose in the story other than being noisy.

I hope that the last book makes justice to this series of amazing and wonderful books. It already feels like I'm saying goodbye.. ugh. I'm just mentally preparing myself. I want an amazing epilogue, thanks. Can't wait to read the last one. ...more

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May 19, 2016 Natalie rated it it was amazing

WHY?!?!?? THE BOOK HAS A FRIGGIN CLIFF HANGER!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I wanna curl up and cry right now because I know there won't be another book until next year! I love this series so much it hurts me waiting so log for the next book to come out! This installment was phenomenal! I loved every second of it ❤️ ...more

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Nov 20, 2017 Shane Vervoort rated it it was ok

It was a lousy entery in the land of stories book saga, but it had its moments and it comedic parts. I just was not very in to it as much as I was in the other books. It is decent though. Unfortunatly, this is the worst book of the saga so far.

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