Inkdeath (Inkheart Trilogy) by Cornelia Funke
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Book Reviews of Inkdeath (Inkheart Trilogy)
Book Review: The book is fantastic. A page turner. I read the 663 pages in three days and a half, and Book three is the perfect ending
Summary: 5 Stars
This is the last installment of the Inkheart series.
In the first one, Inkheart, Meggie's father Mo has been hiding from town to town for nine years. So much that their van is more of a house than their present abode.
One night, a strange character by the name of Dustfinger comes to their house to warn Mo about Capricorn. They all escape to a castle owned by Meggie's aunt, Elinor, a spinster that has spent all her life collecting books. Here they are captured by Capricorn's men, as Dustfinger gives them way. The bad men steal a strange book from Mo.
Unbeknown to Meggie, Mo has an interesting talent: when he reads aloud, things, and sometimes people, come out of their stories and into the real world! (Silvertongue) Unfortunately things from the outside world may also go back inside the stories.
Even though Mo works at restoring books and owns a large amount of then, he stopped reading aloud nine years ago when Meggie's mother disappeared as he created Capricorn and Dustfinger. They were characters in a book titled Inkheart, the book that was stolen that night.
The evil Capricorn wants to use Mo's talents to bring himself great wealth and power. He destroys the last known copy of the book, so Mo searches the author of the book, Fenoglio, who is also captured by Capricorn's men
After escaping from Capricorn's village, they all go separate ways and Meggie discovers that Mo isn't the only one who can read things to life. So can she.<
This is an enchanting story full of adventure, suspense, and magic. The characters are vivid and delightful. Unlike many books for younger readers there is a distinct emphasis on the importance of family as seen in the close relationship between Meggie and her father. Lightly magical, humorous, and fun, Inkheart will appeal to those who like adventure and fantasy, and to anyone who ever wished a story could come to life.
Inkspell - second installment
It is one year after the first book (Inkheart). Capricorn is dead, and Meggie, and her father, Mortimer (Mo), have settled at aunt Elinor's castle, after rescuing Meggie's mother, Resa, Dustfinger - the fire talker, was sent back to the Inkheart book (at the end of book one) and Farid (who was read out of a book by Mo) was very attached to him. Farid convinces Meggie to read them back to the book, since Meggie wants to see the world inside the infamous book and Farid wants to save Dustfinger, who is supposed to die in the original story. She is successful.
Meanwhile, Orpheus, another Silvertongue is brought to Elinor's castle with two evil characters from the frirst book, Basta one of Capricorn's men, and Mortola, Capricorn's mother. Orpheus reads Resa, Mo, Basta and Mortola back into Inkheart.
The action happens in the book of Inkheart, where its author, Fenoglio, was left in the first part of the series.
It is now Meggie's task to read Fenoglios changes to the original "Inkheart" to prevent Dustfinger's death and at the same time save her family from the new misfortunes created by this editing.
Inkdeath
Starts where Inkspell left off. Dustfinger is death--he died saving Farid, his apprentice. Orpheus reads Mo and Resa back into Inkheart. Mo had tricked the evil Adderhead by binding a book for his immortality to save himself and his family. The book is deteriorating and the Adderhead is slowly rotting. He wishes revenge from the Songbird. Help by Orpheus, he tries to capture the Bluejay. Mo, has made a deal with death (The white Women) to kill the Adderhead before winter ends or he and his daughter Meggie will be taken. Mo has to write the three words in the book pf eternal life to kill the Adderhead.
Violante, who has fallen in love with the Bluejay conjures a plan to kill her father. But there is a duel between Orpheus and Fenoglio to control the words that shape the history.
There is a hope that all will end well, if only the words could be found to write a happy ending.
Nothing is more true about these series where "the spoken word is nothing, it hardly lives longer than an insect! Only the written word is eternal!"...Books, "They may last longer, yes, but they breathe only when someone opens the book. They are sound pressed between the pages and only a voice can bring them to life...and the paper makes them immortal."
As you can see from these quotes, the realm of reality is quite complicated in this second installment of the series.
You have people that can read characters out or into books (Mo, Meggie, and Orpheus). Then you have people who can read themselves into fiction books (Meggie). Then you have the author of the fictional book who is now inside the book he wrote and trying to edit different endings from the original book. Death may happen in our world or in the fictional world. The only think that is true is:
"All I need is a sheet of paper and something to write with, and then I can turn the world upside down." Nietzsche
The book is fantastic. A page turner. I read the 663 pages in three days and a half, and Book three is the perfect ending to the Inkheart Trilogy.
Book Review: A powerful statement of the power of reading, writing and storytelling to literally change the world
Summary: 5 Stars
It's been five years since German author Cornelia Funke's novel INKHEART was first published in English. Since then, the absorbing fantasy, which focuses on characters who can travel in and out of worlds simply by reading books aloud, has captivated millions of fans and will even be made into a feature film in 2009. Now, the story that began with INKHEART and continued in INKSPELL comes full circle with INKDEATH.
The central character of the first two books was Meggie, a girl whose father, the bookbinder Mo, has the wonderful and dangerous ability to bring fictional characters to life when he reads aloud. Since the beginning of the series, Meggie and Mo have spent most of their time trying to get characters from the Inkworld back where they belong, while rescuing people from their world --- including Meggie's mother, Resa --- who have been drawn into the fictional one. Over the course of two rich, adventurous novels, Meggie and Mo have become intimately involved with the lives of dozens of others --- from their world and the Inkworld --- and have been drawn, sometimes against their will, into the increasingly ugly political machinations of the unstable Inkworld.
At the opening of INKDEATH, the evil Adderhead has taken control of the great city of Ombra and --- thanks to Mo's unwilling involvement --- has received the gift of eternal life. Mo, who has now gained notoriety as the robber Bluejay, is involved in nightly campaigns to protect Inkworld villagers from the Adderhead's terrorist marauders who roam the countryside. Meanwhile, Meggie pines for her friend (and possibly more) Farid, who has become a de facto slave to the criminal Orpheus, who uses his own ability to bring words to life to create (and then have Farid dig up) buried treasure all over the Inkworld. As for Farid, he lives in the ever-dwindling hope that Orpheus will somehow be able to bring Dustfinger (who sacrificed his own life to revive Farid's) back to life.
As one might be able to guess from the book's title, all does not end well for all the characters readers have come to care about during the series, and its themes are far more complex and mature than its predecessors. Not all is entirely bleak, however --- plenty of twists and turns, not to mention some compelling new characters, will keep audiences on the edge of their seats even as Funke gives them new thematic material to consider.
Funke herself comes to INKDEATH with a new and sober perspective. As she writes in a moving author's note, her husband of 26 years passed away shortly before the novel's 2007 publication in Germany. In the end, though, the Inkheart trilogy is not only an emotionally absorbing, thematically rich fantasy series. It's also a powerful statement of the power of reading, writing and storytelling to literally change the world.
--- Reviewed by Norah Piehl
Book Review: Great story!
Summary: 5 Stars
In reading other reviews about this trilogy, some people seemed concerned that some characters were not as present as they would have liked in this book. As a reader who really gets attached to a book's characters, I can understand this concern. However, as I read this trilogy, I found that my first impressions of who the significant characters were changed over time as did their importance to the story and new ones introduced. For example, in Inkheart, I just could not put the book down because I had to find out what happens to Dustfinger who had been an unwilling addition to our "real world" and was so desperate to get back home to the "Inkworld". What must that be like!?
Inkspell, to me, was a wonderful bridge between Inkheart and Inkdeath and helps the reader to better appreciate and understand Inkdeath with many important events contained within its pages. Some issues are resolved and some new ones occur. It is quite a page turner as well.
In the end, I have to say that Inkdeath is my favorite book of the trilogy. After reading all three books, I have come to the conclusion that, for me at least, the main character in the series is Mo. It was pure joy to watch this character grow and to learn what kind of man he actually is. There were many fine hints of who he is in the first two books but you really find out in Inkdeath. There are many poignant scenes in this book regarding him. My favorite such scene is when Resa helplessly has to watch Mo ride through the castle gates...alone...in the face of great danger. A reader can greatly feel her extreme pain, fear, and pride, all at the same time, as she watches this man of immense courage, who belongs to her, do what he has to do. (This scene also clearly shows why the "White Women" loved Mo's "heart" as well as his voice so much). Beautifully written!
I highly recommend this trilogy to you. Beware, though! Try not to get caught up in the action and read Inkdeath at too fast a pace. This book keeps you on the edge of your seat; and if you let your eyes fly over the pages too quickly, you will miss some subtle, very important clues which help to make so much more sense of the story in the end that you are left thinking...well, that was clever! I say this because I found myself constantly rereading in an effort to try to catch up with what I missed in my haste to find out what would happen to Mo! And, the ending is quite surprising. (Ugh!!! It was so hard not to read the last few chapters before the story took me there!)
Anyway, if you decide to read this trilogy, I hope you enjoy it as much as I did. It would probably be a good idea to read all three books and in order so that your reading experience with this story will be so much richer.
Thanks for reading my review.
Book Review: Still Spellbound
Summary: 5 Stars
If there was one thing I did not like about the "Inkheart" series it is the fact that I read each book so far apart from the previous one. By the time I got to read "Inkdeath," the final book in the trilogy, it was hard to remember all the pertinent events from the previous two novels, and knowledge of those events is necessary in this series. While "Inkdeath" has a lot of territory to cover in terms of backstory, which initially slows it down, it is a fantastical and fitting end to an incredible adventure.
Picking up where "Inkspell" left off, Meggie and her family are living within the magical fictional world of the novel Inkheart. But all is not well within its pages, as her father Mo has fully assumed the identity of the Bluejay (a Robin Hood like character) which makes him the target of the Adderhead. For even though Mo bound the White Book to make the Adderhead immortal, the book is working as Mo intended it to, not as the Adderhead wishes, and now the king is out for revenge on the man who is slowly killing him. As Mo's life becomes ever more in danger, he places the lives of his friends and families, and indeed all the children of Ombra, at risk as well. Meggie desperately tries to find a way to fix what has gone wrong with the story, but Fengolio has lost his way with words and cannot write anything. And would it even work if he could, for Meggie and Mo are uncertain what is real and what is an illusion inside this world made of words.
"Inkdeath" seems much more grown up than the previous two works as Funke grapples with some serious issues, questioning just how much we can control our own fate. The beautiful thing about Funke's writing is that it pays homage to the wonderful children's literature that has come before it and draws upon a wide array of fairy tale and fantasy elements. At times the plotting seems disjointed and keeping track of the huge cast of characters can be difficult without Funke's A-Z listing at the end of the book. However, "Inkdeath" is a fitting conclusion for the fantastical events begun in "Inkheart". It is a truly unique and magical tale that lives beyond the page.
Book Review: Adults have an important role too!
Summary: 5 Stars
I would like to address the comments that frequently expressed concern about Mo taking a larger role in this book while Meggie takes more of a background role. First of all, why not? Isn't it wonderful that there is an author out there who portrays adults shining in their roles. Our society gets so bombarded with the idea that people can be shining stars when they're young and glamourous but then once you reach middle age, the media gives this impression that you need to somehow recede in the background, step back, and let the younger more glamourous take the scene. In this case, the adults are portrayed with bigger roles than you normally see in most books. Mo is the central character here and isn't it great that so many people were touched by these series even to the end. Some even said that Inkdeath was their favourite book. This makes a strong statement to our society which is that older people also deserve to have a chance to shine. Meggie got to shine in two whole books and so why not let Mo shine in the third one? This doesn't take away from Meggie in any way. Rather this teaches us a lesson in our lives that we should ALL be given opportunities to shine. Regardless of whether we're young or older, we can make a difference in this world in the lives of both children and adults and we can be a part of things. It's NOT all over for us once we pass our school ages! People like Cornelia Funke and George Lucas do such a great service to humanity and their work by portraying people of ALL ages as important central characters in their stories. Yes, young school age people and also glamourous people are given important roles but they aren't the ONLY ones given those roles. When authors like Cornelia Funke and the Star Wars authors constantly hit the bestseller list, this gives a subtle message to our youth worshipping media society that speaks to a longing deep within all of our hearts--the truth that ALL of us can be larger than life, and do beautiful and wonderful things.