Customer Reviews

The Diamond of Darkhold: The Fourth Book of Ember (Books of Ember)

5 star:		(17)
4 star:		(21)
3 star:		(10)
2 star:		(10)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

There are few books that I give this low of a rating. I almost hate doing this because I loved the first two books so much, but there are three reasons I'm giving this book only two stars.

The first is it felt like the book was talking down to its young audience. The first two books were so contemporary and edgy, but it felt like this one spent half the time defining big words and inserting placeholder dialogue. The writing style lacked a quality I know Duprau is capable of.

The second is that the book is a rewind of The City of Ember (Books of Ember). It seemed like the characters hadn't really developed since the first book and had to learn all the old lessons over again. Plus it just played the same plot tricks as the first book, only instead of escaping Ember, Lina and Doon are going back. And it totally ignores all of the information from The Prophet of Yonwood (Books of Ember) (which wasn't that good to begin with) until the last ten pages--and even that tie-in seems forced, like it's an afterthought.

The final thing that made this book just not work for me is that the ending is moral driven rather than character driven. Instead of letting the characters' actions speak for themselves, there is a LONG epilogue that tells word for word all the lessons Lina and Doon learned. After all they go through together, the reader should be able to tell what lessons were learned without it being spelled out for them--literally!

This book could have been hot with all the potential in the first two books. The premiss for this one is fantastic and the already-established characters are amazing, but this book just doesn't pull it all together in the end. I wish the series would have ended after The People of Sparks (Books of Ember).

Have you ever been in a situation where you were given a ten page report to write but you only had about two pages of material? If you were like everyone, you'd try to make the material 'stretch' in various ways. Have a thesis paragraph that went on for 3 pages, duplicate that for the conclusion, change the font size to something that would take another page or two, and then you would pad the paper with immaterial exposition till the 'document' reached a respectable length. Oh. And with that, the nice cover sheet, can't forget that.

Anyway, the point I'm trying to reach is that, The Diamond of Darkhold is that paper. As far as I can tell, it's about 20% plot, with the rest being either a slight of hand font sizing, immaterial side stories, and a 'antagonist' (and I say that loosely) to give this story a sense of crisis. Without it, the 20% would have been a simple story of Doon and Lina going back to the dead city of Ember and finding one additional surprise from the Builders to help the city of Sparks start its way unto the beginnings of a civilization.

At most, this felt like an afterthought from the author to the fans to give a sense of closure to Lina and Doon that would have been a pleasant short story. But when forced to stretch this to a 300 page story, the lack of a true sense of crisis (whether it's solving the mystery of the City of Ember or helping the People of Sparks survive), made this The Diamond of Darkhold ring somewhat hollow.

And for those of you who're curious, I got a C- for that paper.

Ever since they emerged from the City of Ember, I have been waiting for them to go back and see what has become of their city. This book finally takes us back to the City of Ember. Perhaps others may have been waiting too.


Darkhold's Ember is nothing like the City of Ember of book 1. This time the story is not satisfying, despite offering a reasonable explanation about the fate of those who wandered into the Unknown Regions. Other than that, the journey felt rushed and not well developed. I doubt this was intentional to indicate that Ember is now irrelevant.

There is also an issue with filler content. For example, there is an entire subplot of minor characters that could be dropped to save at least 20% of the book and nothing would be lost at all.

The author also continues to explore themes of alternate energy that she touches on in her other books, especially Car Trouble.

The first book of Ember presented with an amazing world unlike anything that we had experienced before. A city of hope, created with love, reflected with a greatly crafted amount of detail, suspense, sorrow, and expectations. You will not find any of that here.

The problem with sequels is that they get compared to the previous installments. In that department the Diamond of Darkhold is clearly the 3rd best in the series, after City of Ember and People of Sparks. Unfortunately, this also makes it the 2nd weakest.

Without question, this book is an enjoyable read for the Ember faithful and serves as a reasonable conclusion for the series. Sadly, compared with past glory, this ember glows dim...

A note of caution for new readers:

Despite the quick summary in the first few pages, new readers to the series will be lost. They will most likely not enjoy this book as it really assumes that they had read the previous three books - which really should be read as they are quite good!

The Diamond of Darkhold picks up where The People of Sparks left off. The former residents of the underground City of Ember are having a hard time adjusting to their new life out in the light--and the wind, rain, and cold. Doon becomes convinced that they overlooked a valuable invention when they left Ember, so he and Lina decide to go back to seek the treasure.

When they do, they encounter a city generator on its last gasps, and a wild family named the Troggs who have decided that warm and dry inside beats the cold and unpredictable outside world. I really liked that dynamic, unpredictable freedom versus (an illusion of) safety, and the Troggs' desire to milk a clearly unsustainable situation for all it was worth.

Lina and Doon have their adventures and find something that does make life a whole lot better for everyone. I really enjoyed this book and felt like it redeemed the series after the unsatisfying third book, the prequel The Prophet of Yonwood. I somehow felt there could have been a little more to The Diamond of Darkhold--it didn't reach the level of originality and completeness of the original City of Ember for me, but reading the next chapters in Lina and Doon's lives brought the series to a full-circle close.

The overall series is strong with one notable misfire: I give The City of Ember 5 stars; The People of Sparks 3.5 stars; the misbegotten prequel The Prophet of Yonwood 1 star; and this redemptive finale The Diamond of Darkhold 4 stars. As young adult fiction goes, the Books of Ember series is thoughtful but also appropriate for strong readers fourth grade and older.

Absolutely a disappointing end to what could have been a superb series. DuPrau had a great story here it is too bad that she was the one to write it.

My biggest complaint is - the Builders of Ember where smart enough to make this entire underground city but only made ONE INSTRUCTION MANUAL for the solar cells? I mean puhleeze!

I know this ultimately ends up being this big Luddite inspired anti-technology pro-green solar energy environmental treatise and I don't actually have a problem with that more or less but to deny the good that technology can do is as wrong-minded as ignoring the bad that it can do too. DuPrau seems to see everything as black or white.

The final ten pages of the book are more interesting than the entire thing since she peoples it with useless characters, plot devices that go nowhere and then tacks on an ending that would have been far more interesting than what she gave us.

The story had such promise - this lady could have used a good editor.

After thoroughly enjoying The City of Ember, and liking The People of Sparks alright, I was excited to read this later installment in the series. (Let's just try to forget about the Prophet of Yonwood, shall we?) Boy, was I disappointed! The characters were shallow, and the dialogue was unimaginative. There were so many minor plot holes and at the end, the author obviously got tired of writing the book and summed up the epilogue in a huge chunk of boring afterthought. I was very disappointed - and yes, downright bored - in many of the plot points which, I suppose, were supposed to be interesting and creative. I don't know if publisher asked the author to write this book, but it's clear she did not put her whole time nor talent into this piece of lazy writing. Too bad!

I expected more from this book. I couldn't wait to read it, but I was sadly disappointed. It's definitely not as good as City of Ember or People of Sparks. The plot wasn't interesting. Some of the dialogue was dull and not very original. I don't know if the publisher asked the author to write a fourth book, and she just couldn't come up with anything better. I wished it were a better book.

I had high expectations for this book, as it would mark the first time Lina and Doon returned to their darkened city. Unfortunately, this book feels forced, and does not hold the same excitement as the first book. The plot is completely useless, the main characters are helpless, and it's at least 35% filler. Any character development that occured in books 1 and 2 has been lost in the wind. Everyone is very dull as a character. Lina and Doon have no idea what they are doing, and they have no plan whatsoever. Torren, Lizzie, and Clara's "rescue" is pointless. The Trogs are also, pointless. The diamonds are pure filler.

Please, whatever you do, don't bother getting this book. Especially not the audiobook. Luckily I rented the audiobook from my library, or I would have wanted a refund!

I loved The City of Ember and I liked The People of Sparks. I didn't bother to read the prequel because it sounded lame, but I was psyched to read Diamond of Darkhold. Boy, was I disappointed. This book was poorly written. It was full with cliched characters, predictable dialogue, plot elements that we have already seen (in the first book) and overall suffered from severe suckiness.

People, let your memories of Ember and Sparks end on high note and skip this lousy read.

We enjoyed the first book of this series, The City of Ember, in which Lina and Doon find a way out of the dying, underground city of Ember which had been built generations before as a place of safety during a great catastrophe. We also liked the second book, The People of Sparks, in which Lina and Doon help lead the others out of Ember to a small above-ground village named Sparks where they settle. We did not care as much for the third book, The Prophet of Yonwood, which isn't about Lina, Doon, and the people of Ember but is a "prequel" which is supposed to explain how Ember came to be built but really doesn't and deals with some issues that we wondered if they are really appropriate for children.
However, this Fourth Book of Ember returns to the time of Lina and Doon. A roamer comes to Sparks and has a book which Doon recognizes as something that was intended for the people of Ember. Most of it is missing, but Doon understands enough to guess that there's still something in Ember which would be helpful for them. So he and Lina decide to sneak off, return to Ember, and find whatever it is. When they get there, they see that a family of squatters named Trogg have settled in Ember, which they renamed Darkhold, and are scavaging the city. The Troggs capture Doon who learns that they have found a "diamond" which Doon is convinced was intended for the people of Ember. Lina starts to go back to Sparks for help. She joins with the roamer from whom Doon had purchased the book, who just happens to be Mr. Trogg's sister, and begins traveling with her, but they go in the wrong direction. Meanwhile, Doon escapes from the Troggs, and when Lina leaves the roamer and heads back to Ember, she meets up with Doon. But will they ever figure out what the diamond is capable of doing?
The Diamond of Darkhold is every bit as exciting and suspenseful as the first book. Jeanne DuPrau is a very good author. One reviewer correctly called it "another action-packed adventure with powerful themes about hope, learning, and the search for truth." Kathy Davis of Home School Buzz wrote, "Both children face more challenges that require some quick thinking. Having read and reviewed City of Ember, but not the sequels The People of Sparks or The Prophet of Yonwood, I can say put me at a slight disadvantage. There were a few plot lines I was confused by, but only a few. The author tried summarizing most of the main points of the series, so that a new reader could pick up Diamond of Darkhold and enjoy it as a stand-alone story. But, it would be better to read the prequels first. There is a strong focus on character development, and the story flows from several of the character's different points of view. There is some action with the adventure, and the author places an emphasis on teamwork, creative thinking, and the acceptance of each other." There is an interesting tie in to The Prophet of Yonwood at the end of the story, with somewhat of a surprising conclusion.