Customer Reviews

Fablehaven, Book 5:Keys to the Demon Prison

5 star:		(85)
4 star:		(15)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

Kendra and Seth's parents have been kidnapped by the duplicitous Sphinx, head of the Society of the Evening Star. And the Sphinx now has control of most of the keys to the demon prison Zzyzx, which he wants to open. But opening the demon prison means the means the end of the world.

In this final installment of the Fablehaven series, siblings Kendra and Seth are separated throughout most of the book. Both face their own epic quests as they try to stop the opening of Zzyzx by any means possible. Along the way, they are reunited with old friends and confidants as well as new mysterious characters. Because of their past experience, neither sibling is quick to trust strangers anymore. But the side of good needs all the help they can get in this seemingly unwinnable war.

Fablehaven has continued to be one of my all-time favorite children's fantasy series. And this final book finally reveals mysteries and questions that fans have been waiting for. I am a little disappointed that the series has ended, but am very pleased with the way Mull has wrapped up the story. Kendra and Seth have been extremely enjoyable characters. And the world of Fablehaven appeals to people of all ages. With more fantastic creatures, far off lands, and dangerous quests, Keys to the Demon Prison leads up to an action-packed final battle with a satisfying ending to an incredible series.

I am sad that this is the ending of the series, but WOW what a way to go! I could not put it down, and I plan to read it again several times! Another great fantasy series for my book shelf!

This book in the series is non-stop action, a few new characters, great character development for some of my favorite characters, and all the loose ends tied up. What more can you ask for in a series finale?

If you like fantasy or fairy tales, I would recommend that you definitely check out this series! There is a brother and sister hero and heroine so I think both guys and gals can find something they relate to in the books. Also, all the favorites of fantasy are included: dragons, fairies, centaurs, unicorns, witches/hags, demons and some interesting twists on vampires.

I agree with the other reviewers that the series is fairly intricate so reading them in order is a must, but it is a great journey. Props to Brandon Mull for providing such an amazing series to lovers of fantasy!

I love the Fablehaven series. I was very excited to read the final book. I liked how many questions were answered and the action was fun. However, I think this book had too much action. I think it could have been divided into two or three books and fleshed out more. The finding of the final artifacts and the final battle with the evil forces sort of ran together and provided no respite for the reader. Of course maybe reading it in one day was part of my problem. At any rate, if you like the fablehaven series this one is a must read.

At the end of book 4, I had my serious doubts at how the author was going to wrap up such a series in only one more book. He proved me wrong, but I worry it was at the expensive of the story a little. Don't get me wrong, it's still wonderful. There's just so much that happens in such a short amount of time. And for some reason all of it happens with such ease. The previous 4 book felt like there was more of a battle to get what they were after. Seth alone has 6 different adventures (and not all of them include Kendra). I did love watching him mature in this book. He learned that not all wrong decisions are done for the wrong reasons. I think he learned what true courage was. I also love the involvement of the Satyrs. They were fantastic, providing just enough comic relief throughout the story! Kendra seems to have fulfilled the big sister role. She doesn't seem to play much of a part in the bigger picture until the very end when she single-handedly swoops in and saves the day (without even really meaning too). I really liked how the author threw in a love interest. It was so appropriate and very tastefully done. Overall, I thought it was a fantastic ending to the series. I just think the author could have easily gotten one more book out of the series by drawing out some of the tasks a little. I will be looking forward to see what Brandon Mull comes up with next!

Fablehaven is a great book. In this particular book, Kendra, Trask, Tanu, Coulter, and the grand parents travel to the home of the Sphinx with a newly found artifact: the translocator. It grants power over space and time which helps them travel to the Sphinx's lair. Also, Seth has his own journey as his destiny as a shadowcharmor unfolds. He must find a useful object that may or may not be the key to saving the world while Kendra finds out more about being fairykind. Can Warren survive in the knapsack? How long can the resistance of good loyal creatures last? Find out in Fablehaven 5: Keys to the Demon Prison!

I loved the Fabelhaven series. Reading in an adult's perspective, from book one I adored Seth, found Kendra a little over-bearing, and had loads of fun with their adventures. I probably liked book 4 the best. I did enjoy this book as well, but I agree with many other reviewers who think it should have been broken up into more books. (The only problem there, is I would have had to wait another year or two to get to the end.) There were some things that bothered me as far as not fleshing out the characters as much as possible, but the story was still wicked-fun.
I would definitely recommend this series to 5th graders and up, especially to boys. (Girls will also like this series, but I think the boys are harder to please - and this would hit the mark.)
All of my brothers (from 11 years old to 30) enjoyed the series, and I think it ranks as one of my favorites.

(FYI: I'm a 24 year old mother of 2 who typically enjoys fantasy, fairy tales, romantic stories and mysteries.)

This is the last Fablehaven book. If you've read the series, you should definitely read this one. I liked it a lot, but not as much as the others. The plot moved a little too fast for me, and I think the author could have expanded on some ideas. There seemed like a few unneccesary characters, and Bracken didn't have a lot of personality. The last battle was not as immpressive as I would have hoped. The Singing Sisters reminded me too much of Orddu, Orwen, and Orgoch from the Prydian Chronicles. Besides these minor flaws, I enjoyed this book as much as the others, and if you haven't read the rest of the books and you like fantasy, you should.

I do love this series, honest! However, i just got sick and tired of Kendra taking all the attention from Seth, who I find much more likeable. Seth's abilities aren't even fleshed out all the way, which also bugged me. I find the shadow charmer aspect much more interesting than fairykind, and wish more attention was paid to Seth! Besides that, Kendra killed the demon king in about 10 seconds, with a sword that made no sense for her character! Seth using the sword of light and dark makes sense because he is good and means well but is a shadow charmer. Kendra is only light, so the sword should not ne special for her.

Besides this, i definetly enjoyed this book, and it gets a four star rating from me.

*If you haven't read the previous book (Secrets of the Dragon Sanctuary), consider this your SPOILER ALERT*

Keys to the Demon Prison picks up approximately three months after the events in book four, at Wyrmroost, the Dragon Sanctuary. Warren is still trapped in the storage room in the knapsack, Vanessa still dangles her secret as a bargaining chip, and the Society of the Evening Star still holds Kendra and Seth's parents captive. The Sphinx is still searching for the last artifacts needed to open Zzyxx, the demon prison.

I expected this book to be like the others, where the beginning takes you easily into the story, and a few chapters later something terrible is discovered and the fun begins. It is not. From the beginning, I got the sense that tensions here high. The action begins in the first few chapters, and does not let up until the end. Kendra and Seth are separated for the majority of the book, each with their own support band, following their own dangerous and trying quests.

Brandon Mull really showed his mastery of deception and plot in this book, as he revealed secrets I didn't know were secrets, and answered any questions I had from the previous books. I was surprised with how well things fit together with the entire series. Mull definitely planned this out well. Although I am sad to see the Fablehaven series come to an end (it's one of my favorites), I think this book did the series justice. It was tied up quite nicely, and I felt like there was a definite end to it. Mull certainly knows how to let a series go out with a bang!

I like Fablehaven series because the plots are interesting. But unfortunately it takes much more than a decent plot to have a good book, and in the last book it is more evident than in the others. Perhaps the last book was a bit rushed by the publishers and it did not help.
So, among the pros:
- interesting inventive plotting. Some turns are downright unpredictable. This is why I have bought all 5 books, the stories do stand out.
- good comic relief: satyrs Doren and Newel. Who would have guessed that satyrs were such fans of junk food, speeding and daytime television?
- occasional characters are well fleshed out, like Seth and Sphynx, Patton. In the previous books - Lena.
Sadly that is about all that I can say positive about the book. It is not as bad as it sounds, there are much worse books on the market.
The cons:
- All but a very few characters are extremely one-dimentional and flat.
- Dialogue is horrible except for occasional banter, mostly involving Seth and satyres. Everybody else is talking super efficiently, always explains everything with plenty of logic and summarizing, and lacks emotion. People do not have any distinctive voices here. Perhaps that is a side effect of lacking the distinctive personalities as well.
- Btracken-Kendra attraction seems extremely forced. Sure, she's 15, she needs a love interest. But this one jumps out from nowhere. There was no way to detect any attraction before the narcoblix blurts this out as a secret.
- The whole language of the series grates a lot. The last book is no exception. Everything happens fast, is explained compactly and efficiently, but the beauty of literature and especially of fairy tales is in details and lingering over the most worthy details. No lingering here. And sometimes I would prefer a good description rather than a bookful of statements and information dumps. I do not like to read that the pancakes were a perfection, show me the smell, the look, the taste or the texture to prove that they were a perfection.
- Some plot points are weak. The demon king, for example, was defeated way too easily. Was it too hard to think of some additional coincedence allowing such easy defeat at the hands of an extremely inexperienced person?
Despite the problems, the book is fun, and thanks to all the shortcomings, it also can be a handy example of what mistakes not to make when writing a Young Adult novel.