The Maelstrom: Book Four of The Tapestry

This story is well crafted and so interesting. The characters are different and interesting. I could not put any of the books down in this Series! I won't spoil a thing for you. Hang on for a ride...you won't be disappointed!

Henry H. Neff's capabilities improve with every book he writes. The Maelstrom is not my favorite of the Tapestry series. I'm never sure if that's The Fiend and the Forge or The Red Winter. But it's a solid entry with few real weaknesses. By The Maelstrom, Neff is deep into his own world creation, and he has created a rich, original landscape that bears little resemblance to the Harry Potter lite of Hound of Rowan. There are politics and intrigue roiling beneath the surface of Neff's Tapestry, always. Even heroes have horrific flaws, and there is another side to every story. It makes for a fascinating depth.Those who wanted to know more about Elias Bram get their chance in The Maelstrom, which also features development of Mina, an old-new love interest for Max in Scathach, and a return to the central friendship between Max and David that was somewhat missing in The Fiend and the Forge. Neff begins maturing Max in The Fiend and the Forge, which is in many ways the real coming-of-age story of the series, but here Max comes into his own as a leader in his own right, albeit a different sort of leader than his friend. As Max begins to discover the peaks of his abilities, the protagonist, while still a fundamentally good character, undeniably also becomes a sort of monster, and Neff starts into an examination of the limits that should be placed on power that will become so central to the final volume of the series. Maelstrom features some riveting action and war scenes.Parents may be concerned about younger children reading this book. Many of the comic elements of earlier installments of the series are missing here. Protective, parental figures like Hannah and Nigel receive less time in this more dangerous book, and mentors are compromised or have become somewhat untrustworthy. Mum, almost one of the main characters in the second book of the series, is missing entirely from this book, and her absence is felt, and not just by her friend and colleague Bob in-story. But for older children or growing ones, The Maelstrom is a well-woven, thought-provoking penultimate installment to Neff's fantasy series.

The fourth book is fast-paced, but the canvas being too vast, the descriptions are rather sketchy. For example, in the invasion of Rowan by Prusia's army, only a minor side battle happening along a small trench manned by Max's Black Rat army is actually described as the war is viewed exclusively from Max's point of view. Readers feel thwarted because of this, for they would naturally be looking forward to a more detailed description of the war. Also, the defeat and rout of Prusias in the concluding part of the book seems contrived and unconvincing as the author has not spent sufficient time on developing the character of the small girl with exceptional old magic powers. Elias hardly appears in the book, which is rather disappointing as he had been shorn up so much in the previous books as a perfect foil to Astratoth. When he made an appearance in the last part of the third book, readers were left with the expectation that the next book would be full of him, but that is not how it is.The problem with this book is that there are too many hero characters here - Max, David, Elias Bram, Elias' Bram's grand-daughter, Astorath and so on, and the author's attention is divided between them, and he is not able to decide who is the main hero. Astrorath is a shadow of his former self in this book and does not evoke the awe he did in the earlier books. On the whole, it appears as if the author finished off the book in a tearing hurry. It would have been more rewarding if he had taken the time to flesh out the characters and the situations a bit more fully. Let us hope the final book will redeem the series.There are some loose ends the author has not tied up. For example, the two good vyes that we encountered in the third book are hardly used, except to return the magical boat to Rowan. One would have expected that they would form the focus of a pro-Rowan faction of the vye community and the vyes disillusioned with demon-rule where they enjoy a lowly cannon-fodder status will side with the anti-demon forces represented by Rowan. But the author has not thought it fit to use this opportunity.Also the book smacks too much of Uncle Sam's techniques of riding rough-shod over rival nations and all its actions being justified on the moral premise that what is good for Rowan is also ethically right. There is even a laudatory quote about Winston Churchill, who is not remembered by the victims of colonial rule as a man of high moral and ethical standards. He was instrumental in killing 10 million Bengali Indians during World War II by syphoning off all available food-grains for war use. He is also remembered in history for the unscrupulous agreements he made with Hitler's Nazi Germany. The author however finds Churchill a character fit for idolizing.Much of what David does in the line of disrupting the ships of the demon world or spreading deadly poison in the demon world are reminiscent of what the Taliban does - blowing up planes on building or spreading anthrax on the unsuspecting American population, or the drone attacks on Afghan and Pakistan villages by the American army. It is hardly possible to sympathize with such tactics on moral and ethical grounds. Rowan doesn't fight its war in a morally correct way. And this is a serious drawback of this book series.

Ganz tolle Reihe. Band 1 und 2 habe ich auf Deutsch gelesen. Die geschichte war spannend, aber es war entweder lieblos übersetzt oder bereits so im Englischen geschrieben. Band 3 wurde viel mehr die Welt erklärt und es wurde blumiger übersetzt. Band 4 und 5 gibt es nur auf Englisch, Band 4 war superspannend. Eine ganz tolle Welt wurde hier kreiert.

good book for kid

This entire series is wonderful. The story itself is very well written and uses language the way it should be used - intelligently. The surroundings are so richly imagined and vividly described that you can imagine yourself there. The characters are so engaging (including the background players) and the perils they encounter left me cheering as they conquered. I can hardly wait for the final book of the set.

Endlich wieder zurück in Rowan! Max und David arbeiten wieder Hand in Hand und bereiten sich auf den kommenden Krieg vor!Man trifft hier wieder alte liebgewonnene Charaktere, aber auch neue Figuren, von denen ich einige sofort ins Herz schließen konnte.Der Kampf gegen Asteroth und Prusias geht in die nächste Runde, und der Autor hat es wieder einmal geschafft mich in seinen Bann zu ziehen, sodass ich das Buch nur schwer aus der Hand legen konnte!

I liked the story and the new developments taking place with elias Bram and Prusias suffering his defeat. Certainly some is quite predicable, still I read through the book in 4 days and was quite absorbed, with little sleep. the final battle between Rowan and Prusias is a kind of superman description of Max and I also liked the Love story developed between him and Scatahatch.Great book, great story just loved it