Book 3

[Bob_DeBouwer]

Warning: the following post is riddled with opinions and spoilers. If either of those bother you, don't read on!
First of all, I loved the first 2 books. The third book, not so much. Not because it was a book about kate, I love her character and she certainly deserved a book.
However, it seemed to me that a lot of things in the third book didn't make sense. I'll try to explain why I feel this way by use of some examples.

Let us take for example the new enemy, that seemingly emerged out of nowhere.
It seems the only counter for them are Kate and Cavendisch. Kate can kill them by focusing her energy in a tight beam, the same technique Zack used in the previous books (like when kidnapped by Forest). It seems however that Zack has forgotten this technique and can only stand by uselessly.
And what happened to those arch-demon and shadow adversaries anyway? They weren't even mentioned.
Another thing that bothered me is that Zack seems to take every new person into the void with him. People he barely knows are given a power-up whereas old and trusted friends and lovers are forgotten. The addition of Don and Chris seemed very random to me, starting out as new supporting characters they end up as line-walkers (and even seem to be related to Zack). As the book carried on I was getting more and more sure (and hoping) that Don was being groomed to be killed off at the end. He seemed to be replacing Zack in every single aspect. This increase in line-walkers again seems to diminish the abilities of Zack and increase his redundancy throughout the book (I seem to be detecting a pattern here).
Let us lastly take a look at the error Zack made by making his friends addicted to himself (this is also being discussed in another topic on this forum). The whole situation seemed out of line with the other two books. Suddenly noticing everyone is getting addicted, Zack running away and getting beat up by Kate, everyone turning on Zack and Zack not being allowed near his friends. Following this Don starts feeding and also causes pleasure to those Zack normally fed.

Conclusion or a TL;DR if you prefer.
The third book only seems to make sense if it's purpose is to completely debunk Zack and his abilities. Maybe serving as a prelude to the next books where it will become clear that Don has been send by the old gods to replace Zack. It does seem a little suspicious that the first person Kate meets at college is Don, a family member of Zack, doesn't it?
Prelude or not I still feel as if some people behaved uncharacteristically and some situations were very strange.

Has anyone else noticed some of these things?

[Ronald Dukarski]

Well, ok, we're really starting to pick up a lot of new readers, so to all of -welcome!

Now, as to you Bob, a lot of your questions can be answered by the fact that Dale( P.S.Power) has a different mode of writing than most authors. When he introduces a new character and decides to create a story line for him or her, he allows that character to build on the same story line as his first (main) character. A lot of authors will create a new series for that (secondary) character. One the reader can jump off into or ignore, as he chooses. Dale incorporates that character into the main story line. If you've read The Young Ancients series you'd have the same situation when the original Main character, Tor, is joined by his siblings and friends, who each get their own book, to continue the same story line. A lot of readers felt Tor was being ignored as Zack seemed to be (as you noted) However, this is just the way Dale writes. You can't just ignore a secondary(?) Character's book without missing out on the continuing story line.

As for who can or can't walk the lines, I believe Zack is "reading" the person's capabilities before he takes them into the void. It may be subconsciously, or it may be he just doesn't share it. Even Hilda says she was unable to hold it together in the void. Some can't. Zack probably knows.

I hope I'm kind of right, but Mr. Power is the final authority here; he'll let us know if we're off base or not.

And once again, welcome to all the new Powerfans (or whatever!)

[Bob_DeBouwer]

[PS Power]

Zack also manages to fight the new class of enemy. You probably missed it because I didn't harp on the idea. Fair enough, it was in Kate's book.

Also, it's made clear that Zack tries almost all of his friends in the void, if they're willing to try it. Oddly enough, most don't do very well in that kind of situation.

The arch-demons and so on... They're still in play. It just isn't a thing that Kaitlyn is interacting with personally yet. Yet...



*It all makes sense, or will when the complete picture is seen. It's part of a series however, not a singular title with characters that will only appear once.

**Really, if people wanted to get upset about something in that book, I would pick Cavendish. Talk about a thing out of left field. Though he;s mentioned in the other two books, that isn't an explanation. There will be one however.

[Bob_DeBouwer]

[Darrin]

I have to agree with Bob, i found this book rather disappointing, even to the point of ruining the series for me.

I liked Kaitlyn until about 60% through this book when she decides to turn on Zack (at least that is how i read it).Even his own "Family" sides against him. And the other tenants in the Mall do nothing to help him; in fact they seem to want him to be taken down.

I have to say that Zack is a totally different person according to the actions shown in the third book. I get authors wanting to create other strong characters but why does it always seem to involve tearing down the main protagonist of the other books.

To me it looks like the author got tired of his main character and is trying to setup a replacement(s). For me Zack is the main reason I started reading his books and if this is the path he is tacking then I doubt I will be reading or buying any more of these books.

Just my thoughts and feelings of sadness at a good series taking a horribvle turn.

[willallen]

Good deal. I love to see the discussions flying back and forth here. I thought the new enemies in Book 3 were related to the Arch-demons since they were supposed to be regrouping after the end of Book 2. This new race of creatures seems like some type of construct, so perhaps this is their way to combat Zach and company. Also, I caught the idea too that Zach basically tried all of his friends in the Void (even Willet Stone got a turn) and just about all of them could not handle it. That Don seemed to be able to communicate consciously on the Shadow level with Zack explains why he hustled Don into the Void.

Also,
I get the idea that Humans have an extra creative spark over the other races and the merging that Zach did with Kate may explain the existence of an Alede Line Walker. This is illustrated time and again as members of the other races have such a hard time with the concept of fiction, as well as their simple, unimaginative store names. Anyway, I love this series and hope to see more books soon.

[Darrin]

[MarciaA]

[Darrin]

I hate to say this, but the 3rd Alternate book has so thrown me off that I have UnLiked and stopped following new releases for this author on Amazon.

And when did Alede rules suddenly become the rules that Zack had to follow? If he violated some rule for another race would they be allowed to beat him and lock him up? Let's count" Two Wives Supported him, one stood by and let it happen, the other five sided against him. I guess as long as they get thier weeky check they don't care what happens.

I just have such a hard time getting obver how his family turns on him so quickly. Even Claire doen't support or back him up.


Doh! So flustrating.