Okay, so I went into this book with high hopes and expectations. Which is completely natural because of the impression that the first book of this series, A Measure of Disorder, gives you. And, I must say that this book, which I have waited for and highly anticipated is just about everything I hoped it would be, and more. This epic story continues in a way that I didn't expect and had me hanging on to every word. I flew through the pages, faster and faster until I suddenly realized that there were only about ten pages left in the book. And, as strange as it may seem, I paused in reading it. Not because I wanted to, but because I had realized that the book was about to be over. A thought that greatly saddened me. The reason for this being that I didn't want this book to end because it was just so good. Though, this pause only lasted for a few minutes because I couldn't stand not reading it.
In this sequel to A Measure of Disorder, the characters that I grew to like so much in the first book really had a chance to grow more. Mr. Tucker did a great job of making the protagonists so lovable and the antagonists so... hateable. Not really sure if that's a word, but it's what comes to mind when I think of Mogritas, the main villain of the books. Now, a lot of great villains, such as Sauron or Voldemort, take what they want by force and strength. The genius of Mogritas is that he likes a more of a stay-in-the-shadows approach. Mogritas is a character that is comparable in both evil and deception to the powerful Sith Lord, Palpatine (AKA, Darth Sidious). In a way, I can see Mogritas being a champion chess player. He lets the pawns do all of his dirty work for him before he (the king) comes in and deals the killing blow. In fact, I'd like to see a chess match between Mogritas and Palpatine... It'd probably end with Palpatine unleashing an intense barrage of Force Lightning upon him and Mogritas transforming into some huge lightning-immune bear and they would proceed to have some huge battle... but I'm getting off topic here. What I'm trying to say is that this book has some pretty awesome bad guys and a bunch of pretty awesome good guys that you can't help but love. Mr. Tucker really put a lot of thought and effort into making these characters seem like real people who you can really relate to.
Throughout the book I was hugely impressed with Mr. Tucker's writing. The first time I read the Harry Potter Series I was in complete awe at how J.K. Rowling planned everything out. One little hint in the second book could turn out to be something hugely important in the seventh. And I can see these kind of things starting to play out in the Mother-Earth Series. So, either Alan Tucker is a master of just going along with things and they turn out to be awesome, or he really thought this whole thing out, something that really makes a fantasy series great. As I said in my review for A Measure of Disorder, the whole concept of this book is completely insane. And insanity can turn any good fantasy book into a great one. Any great fantasy author is maybe just a little bit insane to create such genius things. Do you think that there could be Nazguls or Lightsabers if Tolkien or Lucas weren't even a little insane? Of course not! And I really admire the genius of Mr. Tucker for creating this world that is so awesome and... well, believable. From my point of view, if a fantasy author can make you believe, even for the shortest second, that what they are writing about is real, they have done their job. Or, even if they make you want to believe it. 'Cause that's kinda the point of fantasy. My dictionary states that fantasy is "imagination, especially when extravagant and unrestrained." And that is exactly what the crazy awesomeness of the Mother-Earth series is.
To anyone who enjoys an insane fantasy book, I really recommend the Mother-Earth series. It is one of my favorites, and even more so since I've read this book. This is an incredible series and that will fully captivate you.
And so we finally find out what happened to Atlantis....
Austin from ReadingTeen.net
