The Soldiers of Halla (Pendragon Series) [Audiobook, MP3 Audio, Unabridged] [Audio CD]

D. J. MacHale (Author), William Dufris (Reader)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 12, 2009 | Series: Pendragon Series (Book 10)

It has all been leading to this. Every victory. Every loss. All the thrills and sadness; the hope and despair. Bobby Pendragon’s heart-pounding journey through time and space has brought him to this epic moment. He and his fellow Travelers must join forces for one last desperate battle against Saint Dane. At stake is not only the tenth and final territory, but all that ever was or will be. Everywhere. This is the war for Halla. Every question is answered. Every truth is revealed. The final battle has begun.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Book Description
It has all been leading to this. Every victory. Every loss. All the thrills and sadness; the hope and despair. Bobby Pendragon's heart-pounding journey through time and space has brought him to this epic moment. He and his fellow Travelers must join forces for one last desperate battle against Saint Dane. At stake is not only the tenth and final territory, but all that ever was or will be. Everywhere. This is the war for Halla. Every question is answered. Every truth is revealed. The final battle has begun.

---

Behind the Book: From the Desk of D. J. MacHale

I'm often asked the question, "Where did you get the inspiration for the Pendragon story?" I wish I had an easy answer, like "It all came to me in a brilliant flash of creativity, fully articulated and ready to go." It didn't. The truth is much more complicated.

Bobby's adventure didn't start out as Bobby's adventure. It sprang from multiple ideas about many different things. I always like to write about things that I know. Of course I've never traveled through a flume or battled a quig, but so much of what is contained in the Pendragon story jumps from real life...blown up to fantastical proportions. I've written about things I've done and things I've observed. I had an idea for a story about a bunch of people who became addicted to a video game; a discount store that took control of society; a primitive tribe that discovered a devastating, natural weapon; and a world that was in danger of being wiped out by a tainted food supply. I guess the only "brilliant flash of creativity" came when I decided not to write any single one of these stories, but to string them together as part of one overall saga. Being a TV guy, I realized it was a decision that made it impossible for the story to work on television and too big for movies. That's what brought me to writing books.

The question then became, how do I string these together? The answer came pretty quickly. I've always written character-driven adventures about young people. That's what I do. So I created the character of Bobby Pendragon. Unlike most hero stories about young people, I didn't want to go the standard route of making him a loser who somehow finds the hero within. That might work for a single adventure, but it's hard to maintain over ten stories! That would have been a REALLY SLOW character arc. Instead, I made Bobby a guy who had it all going on...and lost it. He became a very real guy who made mistakes and didn't have all the answers. I didn't give him superpowers. In my mind he had to be someone who readers could relate to, so they might think: "What would I do if I were stuck in this situation?" Bobby couldn't wave a magic wand or fly or calculate options at the speed of heat. He acted and reacted the way normal people do. And over the course of the adventure, he grew up.

That is the essence of the Pendragon story. A real person dealing with very real and understandable conflicts where, as in life, there aren't always right answers. The trappings may be bigger than life, but the core is very real and relatable, both with character and with story.

Maybe the most amazing thing about Bobby's journey is that it worked! Meaning, I outlined all ten stories in the very beginning. I knew the theme and setting of each book, and the major events in Bobby's personal journey from the get-go...and I stuck to it. When The Soldiers of Halla is published, Bobby's journey, and mine, will come to an end. I am thrilled and delighted to say that it all worked out the way I planned it. All it took was a lot of work...and maybe a touch of inspiration.

--This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

About the Author

D. J. MacHale is a writer, director, and producer of several popular television series and movies that include Flight 29 Down; Are You Afraid of the Dark?; Encyclopedia Brown, Boy Detective; Tower of Terror; and Ghostwriter. Pendragon, his first book series, is a #1 New York Times bestselling series. He lives in southern California with his wife, Evangeline; his daughter, Keaton; a golden retriever, Maggie; and a kitten, Kaboodle.

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Product Details

• Audio CD
• Publisher: Brilliance Audio on MP3-CD Lib Ed; Library edition (May 12, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1597373125
• ISBN-13: 978-1597373128
• Product Dimensions: 7.4 x 5.3 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (44 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #5,158,777 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

D. J. MacHale is a writer, director, and producer of several popular television series and movies that include Flight 29 Down; Are You Afraid of the Dark?; Encyclopedia Brown, Boy Detective; Tower of Terror; and Ghostwriter. Pendragon, his first book series, is a #1 New York Times bestselling series. He lives in southern California with his wife, Evangeline; his daughter, Keaton; a golden retriever, Maggie; and a kitten, Kaboodle.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

19 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Love the Book. Hate, Really Hate, the Epilogue, May 24, 2009

By 

Carmen Ferreiro "Author Two Moon Princess" - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Soldiers of Halla (Pendragon) (Hardcover)

I have been infatuated with the adventures of Bobby Pendragon since I bought the first books in the series and read them to my son back in 2005. Even after my son decided he was too old to read YA books, I continued buying every one of them as soon as they came out, and devouring them all by myself.

I don't know exactly why I love these books. I love the characters and I love the complexity of the story. Each book is a complete adventure and stands on its own. But at the same time each book advances a story arch, bigger in scope than any of the individual stories. You could say each book is a block, together they build a castle.

I found the "castle", the complete picture of Halla that emerges in this tenth volume quite satisfying. I totally bought into the premise of Halla and Solara and of Saint Dane's origin and self-delusion.

Pendragon: The Soldiers of Halla works well as an independent book too. In the year that took for this final volume to be published, my recollection of many of the events in the previous ones was sketchy at best. Yet, I never got lost. D.J. MacHale does a great job bringing the reader up to speed, giving the information needed to follow the story in a timely, not intruding way. He also provides the right balance between fast-paced adventure and metaphysical explanations.

Thus my five stars.

SPOILERS ALERT

Only once I lost my suspension of disbelief and that was when several thousands of people disappeared suddenly from Black Water. I don't mean through the flume. I get that. I mean, how could Pendragon miss their leaving?

My other complain, and this one is huge, is that I hate, really hate, the Epilogue.

Yes, I wanted Bobby and Courtney to end up together, but not like that. Not in Second Earth, because you see, according to the story, Second Earth changed from the moment Bobby became a traveler at age 14. Which means Bobby, Mark and Courtney's lives in Second Earth could never have continued as it is described in the epilogue. And what about Bobby's parents and sister are they allowed to go back to Earth too?

The spirits of Solara, we have been told repeatedly in this last book, do not change the real world. So where does this "fake" Second Earth come from?

So D.J. MacHale, if you ever read this, please, please, cut this epilogue in future editions.

If you want to give Bobby and Courtney a future together why not let Bobby live his human life on Third Earth after the battle has been won? It would make much more sense and they would be themselves. Because, you see, the characters we have grown to love are not the two kids we met in the first book, but the people they have become because of their struggle to save Halla and their confrontation with Saint Dane. Without their memories of these events, they are as good as dead.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Great, but the epilogue?, June 11, 2009

By 

S. Forman - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Soldiers of Halla (Pendragon) (Hardcover)

I loved this book!!! but...
Spoilers
The epiloge didn't make any sense at all. It contradicted a big part of the story. I also didn't like that Bobby and Courtney got together, it might be just me but I thought Mark and Courtney should have gotten together because the author seemed to be leading up to it. And, come on, they're cute together! Also another thing I didn't like was how Saint Dane went down begging. I LOVE how the people were why he failed but he shouldn't have gone down crying. I also felt that the bit about no good and evil was contradicting itself especially with the positive and negative thing. Other then that I loved the book and I am looking forward to reading it again, I'm just going to get my scissors and cut out the epilogue because THATS the way it was meant to be.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars One Of The Best, January 31, 2010

By 

A Customer - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Soldiers of Halla (Pendragon) (Kindle Edition)

This book, simply put, was fantastic. I've been a Pendragon fanatic ever since The Merchant of Death, and every book continues to engross me. The only other time I've ever felt so anxious to know what will happen to fictional characters is in the Harry Potter series. This book was a great closing to the end of the series. DJ MacHale couldn't do better than this even if he tried.