3 out of 4 stars
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A normal historical essay was how our trio's journey started. Billy and Ricky needed the article about the E&N Railroad while Sarah was going to her soccer game. Together, they boarded the train, but in the end, only Sarah could reach her destination. Her brother and Ricky had vanished into thin air, shortly after their encounter with a mysterious girl, who possessed a pair of unusual eyes.
It turned out Azandra's actually a commander of New Albion, one of the few cities rebuilt after WWIII. She purposely came from the far future to ask for the boys' help, because their opponent was equipped with magic, just like them. The evil wizard managed to destroy most of the countries, killing billions of people and threw the Earth back to the Ice Age. New Albion wanted to change this reality, and for that, the children's abilities were required.
However, Mohryia had his share of the story as well. By showing the memory from the Archive of the Antiquities, he proved that the WWIII was not his doings, or rather, he had tried to prevent it. Now, it's the teenagers' mission to tell right from wrong and to decide the fate of their future.
My favorite point of the book is that despite being part of a series, it serves well as a stand-alone unit. You don't need the other prequels to understand and follow the script. Additionally, unlike most fantasy stories, E&N Escape by P.N.Holland is a nice harmony between science and witchcraft. On the one hand, we have magic, spells, and wands. On the other hand, we have flying ships, beams, teleportation devices for daily usage as well as self-defending. The battles are well-described and fast-paced, almost like a movie scene.
Still, I don't really like the repeated caught-and-rescued scenarios. Too many of them, along with the traveling through time diluted the tension of the story. Grammar mistakes also badly affected the quality of the book. The errors are mainly the wrong usage of punctuation marks and typos, but it shows that the book was not well-edited. So, even though I generally enjoy the book as mentioned above, I will give it 3 out of 4 stars since I think it's not professionally edited.
Because there're hardly bloody or erotic descriptions, I assume that this book is suitable for both teenagers and adults. It's a nice fantasy tale, with a mixture of SF, so I would recommend it to fans of those genres. As for those who expect romance, you may not find what you want in this book.
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E&N Escape
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