kgbooklog

Lemony Snicket, The End
Harper Collins (2006) ISBN: 0-06-029644-5
Score: 5

Thirteenth and final novel of A Series of Unfortunate Events, in which the story of the Baudelaire orphans ends. A good, solid ending; I only spotted a few inconsistencies (which is pretty impressive for a thirteen volume series). It did not contain nearly as many deaths or revelations as I was expecting; it also didn't explain many of the mysteries either, though some of them may solvable through re-reading. Beatrice does appear at the end, but she's not who we were expecting.

Lemony Snicket, The Beatrice Letters
Harper Collins (2006) ISBN: 0-06-058658-3
Score: 1

Another book of cryptic clues about A Series of Unfortunate Events. Not much actual content for the price, though the 3.5 pages of Lemony explaining how he loves Beatrice were quite interesting[1]. It does confirm Beatrice's full name (which was one of the anagrams in The Hostile Hospital), but it also claims there are two people with that name. At least, Lemony writes a letter to his editor claiming that; I suspect Beatrice lost her memory in some event (likely shown in The End) that convinced Lemony she was dead.

[1] "I will love you as the iceberg loves the ship, and the passengers love the lifeboat, and the lifeboat loves the teeth of the sperm whale, and the sperm whale loves the flavor of naval uniforms."

Next Book: P.C. Hodgell, To Ride a Rathorn

Lemony Snicket, The Penultimate Peril
Harper Collins, (2005) ISBN: 0-06-441015-3
ISBN-13: 978-0-06-441015-1
Score: 5

Twelfth book in the Series of Unfortunate Events, this is not a good place to start the series (books 2-4 are the only ones that can be read out of order). Practically every character (who's still alive) from the previous books is mentioned, and most also appear in this book. This is not a good thing. And the orphans go undercover to try to figure out who is a volunteer and who is a villain. This isn't good either. In fact, this book is a bit grimmer and more morally ambiguous than the previous ones (we see the consequences of the setting's lack of competent adults). It answers many questions no one thought to ask, such as: "What was Mr. Baudelaire's first name?", "How did Olaf's parents die?", "Why did Mrs. Bass rob a bank?", "Is the Poe family the only one that doesn't have three kids every generation?", "What do the man-with-a-beard-but-no-hair and the woman-with-hair-but-no-beard do for a living?", and "Who is the father of Kit's child?" None of the answers are pleasant.

Here's a quote that I'm sure james_nicoll can find a use for:
"I suppose I'll have to add the force of gravity to my list of enemies."

Next Book: Lawrence Watt-Evans, Ithanalin's Restoration