A lot of characters change in this book and I am not sure how (or whether) I like that. Mo used to be a peaceful man, didn’t even like the feeling of having a sword in his hand, with an easy readable face — he turns in a very different person: a sword killer (he does kill lots of people, mostly in self defense), his hand flies to the hilt of his sword/knife when insulted, has a secret life he tries to hide from his family and so on. He is still a good person but a bit too violent to be as believable as he was. Dustfinger too changed after what he’s been through: he is now more courageous, a true hero (with superhuman capabilities too). And yet, the very reason I liked him in the first place was his vulnerability, the fact that he wasn’t perfect, the fact that he was afraid, the fact that he made mistakes, the fact that despite all these he still tried to be the best person he could. Now he has interesting and useful capabilities, I’ll grant him that, and I still like him out of habit — but I did like him a lot more in the previous books. Farid and Meggie also change but in more subtle ways (probably explainable by their growing up and having different priorities and expectations out of life). I was happy to see Resa develop in a more powerful character I could root for, and I also liked the Black Prince even more than before. A character I didn’t like was Elinor, it seems like she’s just bossing people around (very annoying when she does it to Fenoglio, who’s supposed to write words to save them all, and she keeps talking and talking instead of letting him think!).

After being sort of disenchanted with the previous book (and reading this only out of a vague curiosity to see what happens + because I like the way Ms. Funke writes), I was surprised to find this book a lot more fast paced than I was expecting it to be (with a few exceptions but nothing is perfect), and also a lot more intense. There are a lot of dark feelings experienced by the characters, a lot of anger, a lot of grief, gripping the reader and not letting go for chapters. Perhaps that is the result of the author having to overcome struggles of her own while writing the book — her husband Rolf dying of cancer in 2006 (speaking of which I have to say I was very moved by the fact that the book is dedicated “To Rolf, always–it was the best of things to be married to Dustfinger.“).

As a small bit of trivia, I was surprised to find out that the original title of Inkspell (the second book) is actually Inkblood (in German of course). I have no idea why the publishers chose to change it, as the new name sort of detracts from the dark atmosphere the novels have and that the titles would have had too if left alone. For example, just look at the three words meant to kill the Adderhead: heart, spell, death (yes, they are taking from the titles of the three books — or viceversa). Doesn’t spell look a bit out of place in there? Especially when you compare it with the actual words the author intended: heart, blood, death <-- these three look a lot more "deadly" to me than the ones we (English readers) got.

What I liked most: The part where Fenoglio, upset and amazed at the fact that his world has once again gotten out of hand, muses:

Was there another man writing this story?

Was there a scribbler sitting somewhere in the hills that he himself had described so vividly, another writer who had sent him falling into this giant’s hand? Or was the wretch sitting in the other world, the real world that hadn’t been written, the way he used to sit there himself, putting Inkheart down on paper?

Oh, come on! What would that make you, Fenoglio?

Of course he decided that no, he wouldn’t allow anyone to pull his strings and he is definitely not a puppet in someone else’s hands, but we (Inkdeath readers) know a lot better than that, don’t we? :P

Also, I am aware of the fact that I keep mentioning how much I love Ms. Funke’s writing style. Among other things here’s my favorite metaphor in the whole book (and trilogy actually):

“Do you remember the sound my heart made when it broke?”

It doesn’t have as much strength taken out of context but I find it powerful imagery nevertheless.

What I liked least: As it’s probably expected by now, here comes another rant on the topic of fantasy rules. There are practically no limitations to what the written (and then read) words can do (they do say at one time that they couldn’t do anything against the grain of the story, the villain couldn’t turn good all of the sudden and so on, but I do find it quite vague). My pet peeve with this book was the part where now words can influence people themselves. In Inkspell there is a scene where Fenoglio puts words in the Adderhead’s mouth. Orpheus on the other hand can create things and beings out of nothing but he never tries to influence actual actions — for no reason at all as, since Fenoglio could do it, so could he. It is very clear that there would have been no story if Orpheus had unleashed his full strength. Think about it, the book that granted immortality was created by Mo because Fenoglio wrote so; if Orpheus wanted such a book for himself why didn’t he simply write one, or write someone into making him one?

It was very frustrating to watch said Orpheus racking his brains to find solutions to things he could easily have solved by writing (and then our heros wouldn’t have had a single chance of escaping but at least the book would have been consistent all around). It would have been a lot better (and I have the feeling that I said it before) if the author had established a set of rules in the beginning and stuck to them throughout, instead of randomly giving capabilities and then letting the characters simply forget them when they didn’t serve the purpose of the book.

Recommend it to? Anyone who has read the previous two books :) I am not sure how much anyone would understand of it without knowing the background story.

This book is a sequel to:
Inkheart
Inkspell


Amazon Affiliate. If you click an Amazon link and buy something, I receive a small percentage of the purchase price.

Popularity: 9% [?]