The Girl and The Moon by Mark Lawrence – a Review
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Description:
The fate of the world hangs from the Moon
The green world overwhelms all of Yaz’s expectations. Everything seems different but some things remain the same: her old enemies are still bent on her destruction.
The Corridor abounds with plenty and unsuspected danger. To stand a chance against the eyeless priest, Eular, and the god-like city-mind, Seus, Yaz will need to learn fast and make new friends.
The Convent of Sweet Mercy, like the Corridor itself, is packed with peril and opportunity. Yaz needs the nuns’ help – but first they want to execute her.
The fate of everyone squeezed between the Corridor’s vast walls, and ultimately the fate of those labouring to survive out on ice itself, hangs from the moon, and the battle to save the moon centres on the Ark of the Missing, buried beneath the emperor’s palace. Everyone wants Yaz to be the key that will open the Ark – the one the wise have sought for generations. But sometimes wanting isn’t enough.
Review:
The Girl and The Moon by Mark Lawrence is the 3rd and final book in The Book of Ice trilogy. I loved Lawrence’s Book of Ancestor series, and did enjoy the first two books of Book of the Ice series. This was a very good conclusion to this series, though as previously noted in the last book, I did have some mixed feelings.
The Girl and the Moon picks up where the last book ended, with the evil priest Eular, pushing to decapitate the heads of Yaz and her friends, since he deems them as enemies. The Abbess of Sweet Mercy Convent insists based on the laws of the Ancestor, that they be thrown into the water to drown. Of course, the Abbess and the nuns have secretly set for them to survive, with the evil priest satisfied after a period of time.
Yaz and Quina stay at the convent to learn more and train from these nuns, teaching them many gifts along the way, while Mali, Thurin and Erris go on another trek. We do get POV’s of Yaz, Mali and Thurin, which gives us hints of what is to come (past and present). Yaz is determined to find the shipheart and the stars to help open the Ark, and stop the false god from taking control. Yaz is throughout the book, constantly hunted by so many forces that are out to destroy her, with so much action that threatens her and her friends lives. Having been brought up in the ice lands, seeing only bitter cold, ice, snow, they are shocked to see the Greenlands, filled with greenery, plants, and lots of food.
What follows is an amazing and compelling story with so much detail, resolutions, twists and turns throughout the relentless ride to the climax. We continue to learn more about the other clans, including the Missing, Black Rock, Sweet Mercy Nuns and the evil God, Seuss, not to mention adding new friends (novices).
The Girl and the Moon was an exciting non-stop action filled story, but my mixed feelings are based on the so many details, which got confusing at times, especially with the constant changes, as well as enemies. What I did love about the story was Yaz, who was a fantastic heroine, and all her fabulous friends that were loyal to her, and we got to see so much of them.
This is a difficult review to do, since there is so much that happens from start to finish, and to tell too much more would be spoilers. As I had noted previously, this series was a fantasy in a different kind of world that is beyond normal. The cruel conditions, the dangerous people, the constant battles and the need to survive keeps us engrossed into this story. The last 1/3 of the book was an amazing and tense climax that was a great finale for this series. If you enjoy fantasy, you can never go wrong with Mark Lawrence.
Reviewed by Barb
Copy provided by Publisher
