The Black Reckoning (Books of Beginning) Hardcover – April 7, 2015

I'm a children's librarian (K-8) so I'm always buying new books for the kids. This series is one of my most popular, and I literally cannot keep it on the shelf. There are three books in the series, and you need to read them in order for the full story.There is adventure and suspense, but nothing that I'd consider "inappropriate." That being said, because of some of the content (witches, "Land of the Dead, etc.) I've marked it for grades 5-8.Both boys and girls in those upper grades love this book, especially "picky" readers. One 7th grade student has talked about it so much I think her entire class is working on reading it. This series is a must for a middle school library.

I do often wonder about the mystique of the ubiquitous sword and sorcery books and I grow rather tired of the genre. Why anyone would depend on swords, bows and arrows and pikes, instead of modern weapons that they would have access to, is beyond me. And the whole war thing seems to always be there with humans. Sigh. We cannot get beyond "us and other" even today and seem to always seek to have these barriers we erect between us and other. But this series was redeemed by the wonderful people in it, elf, dwarf, human, et al. And they find ways to deal with each other, even if they don't like it. I read all three books back to back, and found little to quibble with. Enjoy them!

I admit to struggling both with how many stars this book deserved and how to write this review for final entry in the Books of Beginning trilogy. Truthfully, I had a hard time separating this book from the series when thinking of the number of stars it deserves. In the end I realized that this book being the finale to the trilogy couldn’t truly be counted as an entirely separate entity and its rating had to include in part its ending and impact that had on the other books. Therefore, after much debate and struggling I settled on four stars which is one star higher than I would have likely given it had “The Black Recknoning” been standalone.My struggle and debate started with the fact the series itself is excellent and much like “Harry Potter” or “Fablehaven” series had me eagerly awaiting the next volume and bemoaning several year gaps and pushed back release dates. Yet I kept coming back to several flaws I saw within this story that I couldn’t possibly overlook in a fair an unbiased review of both it and the series as a whole.I struggled with the main question of, did “The Black Reckoning” bring a good ending to a trilogy that from the first page of “The Emerald Atlas” brought me into a magical world and left me excited and breathless with each turn of a page?In the end the only answer I could truly give is yes and no. Unquestionably “The Black Reckoning” had an exciting plot filled with some unexpected twists and turns, some unquestionably sad moments as well as some unexpectedly funny ones. But at times it felt as if there could or should have been a fourth book with a more relaxed plot here allowing for perhaps a full story what happens once all three Books of Beginning are found rather then smushing both those ideas in one book.The reason I couldn’t give it five stars and struggled to give it four were, in general, though I truly enjoyed most of “The Black Reckoning”, its plot was at times kept at a fast 1-2, 1-2, 1-2 beat with drastic plot point jumps and parts were predictable, summarization of scenes recently read were given many times to other characters, rapid introductions of characters who became deus ex machine, major and drastic out-of-character (OOC) moments for some beloved characters and a feeling because of all this, this trilogy should have been four books with a more relaxed ending that might have overcome some of these issues.This in many ways lead me to see the ending, and looking back, the story as a whole as only decent if by itself and good but not great as part of the trilogy. It also led to an ending which was by far not what I had hoped for and one that I still don’t truly feel good about, especially after having waited several years and delayed release dates to read the final book in this trilogy.The more I think about the ending and other problems with this novel, the more I wonder if part of the problem didn’t stem from ending of “The Book of Fire”. The ending to “The Book of Fire” was unquestionably dramatic and exciting, but much like how putting Jennifer in the DeLorean at end of “Back to the Future” boxed Roger Zemeckis into much of the first half “Back to the Future II”, I wonder if the ending of “The Book of Fire” didn’t do the same for “The Black Reckoning”./////WARNING OF POSSIBLE MEDIUM TO MAJOR SPOILERS FOR NEXT FEW PARAGRAPHES. Let me start by saying I saw there being many endings coming together to end the trilogy, of these the three major ones were for Emma, Kate and Michael. Now to be honest I had no real qualms or problems with Kate and Emma’s endings, though perhaps sad, they fit within the story and more or less the direction the plot started back in the “Emerald Atlas”.However Michael’s ending is one that truly didn’t click, and impacting the larger ending, sadly took what could have been a good ending that helped overcome some of the other issues and made it only a decent ending. In an attempt to avoid outright spoilers, I will try to keep things vague and start by saying one of the major issues I have with his ending occurs almost at the very end, within the last few pages. A beloved character from “The Book of Fire” who helped fuel major plot developments in that story and was expanded on in this book several times and even mentioned at one time as being a major plot point to a portion of the story, encountered a major 180 degree change lead to a jarring OOC moment.This was unneeded in my opinion, that character had established feelings, motivations and desires which fueled their actions, some which would not have been taken if the out-of-character moment had been their true character the entire story and yet after about 99% of this book, they suddenly fall out-of-character. This was not only felt off and jarring but wrong in so many ways, especially since it roses questions about the characters attractions to Michael and their reason for risking their life and freedom for his so many times. Perhaps if this change happened more gradually, or at least during an on-screen moment rather then off-screen it might have made more sense, but even then I am not sure. As it was done and for the reasons I think it was done, it just wasn’t needed.If it was done to give Kate, Emma and Michael another connection to each other from their individual stories and how those climaxed here, it could have been done in a much sadder and more impactful way.If it was done to allow all of them to have a move away from the magical world and start over it would be an even worse reason for this OOC moment.If it was done because the character was far more shallow than originally appeared and only was drawn to Michael as the Chronicle's Keeper, then it is a much sadder ending in many ways.... but this is one I am almost sure it is not as there was too many times they risked their lives for each other for this to be the case and again if it the case it is placing the character incredibly OOC and ignoring everything which was previously established by the character and their relationship to Michael.If age of characters was a concern, particularly as lives were somewhat returning to normal at the end of the story, it makes this moment extremely off putting. Age for this one character and their tie to Michael wasn’t seemingly a concern when this character was introduced, throughout the previous book or in 99% of this book and it even seemingly became less of a concern as Michael matured and was seen working more closely with this character and their emotions grew together and their bond stronger.Truthfully, if age was a concern it could have been handled similarly to the end of the animated show “”Avatar: The Last Airbender”. There was an age gap between Katara and Aang but it was never really mentioned though was known and even with the age difference the characters never really fell out-of-character even in their last scene; if anything the culmination of their characters emotions moving from sort of older sister and a crush to blossom into something deeper, took place. For Michael and Wilamena, there was never a moment where the relationship felt that of a "big sister protecting her younger brother" and always felt deeper from her end and before her OOC moment, did from Michael's from the end of the previous novel. That only serves to make the change in her character make even less sense.Basically having her suddenly abandon what emotions and motivations she had for Michael, especially in a world where distance should not make a difference through magical portals, and balancing major responsibilities with a relationship had been established as no problem as they basically fought a war together and still had the relationship going, was one small but very jarring moment to the point it immediately stands out in my mind, part of what was just not a good ending./////END OF SPOILERS: So yes, what is noted above in the spoilers is one small part of the novel but being so jarring it brings to mind all the other faults with the novel, characters summarizing events (which were just read a few pages back) to other characters, characters brought in to be deus ex machine, plot points brought out that either referred to moments that must have occurred "off camera" in the previous novels or were a bit of ret-conning to established plot points, a character on the cover who doesn't play as major a role as one might imagine led to a predictable ending that could have been so different, provided the same message and perhaps been a stronger better ending with a few tweaks and changes.That said it is a good book for about 80% of the story and does provide some closure and a decent ending to the trilogy. It is by far not the ending I would have chosen nor one I think would have best fit such a wonderful series but it is part of an overall excellent trilogy that is worthy of being read and enjoyed more than once.

Usually, character fatigue is evident in an author who waits too long to complete a series (I'm looking at you Eoin Colfer!). I don't know why it took Mr. Stephens this long to complete the series, but the wait was worth it. The characters have developed, but they remain true. The story has many layers and lots of action. This is one YA book that an adult won't cringe at reading with their youngsters.

My 10-yr old loves this series.

Great book. Sad ending

In this series John Stephens fluently captures the thrill of such a wonderful fantastical world and in this book the plot is wonderfully devised, it's exiting and emotional. I love it and I'm sure other readers will too.

I listened to the audio book, love the creativity of the series, well written, and you cannot get better than Jim Dale as the consumate voice performer!

Les caractères s'affirment et se complètent ..Tout s'imbrique ; on comprend mieux l'ambivalence du 'sauveur' et le destin des personnages s'affine.

Wow, lovely story! I won't spoil the ending, but there was a part near the finale that I particularly liked. I also really appreciated how the ending was unexpected but made sense at the same time.Onto other things: As usual, the writing is tip top in that the rhythm and word choices are beautiful. There was enough setting description to keep us grounded but not too much to bog down the pace. The themes of love, family, and friendship were great! In addition, I liked the little sparks of humor here and there.As for character development, though I still find Michael the most well developed and relatable, neither Kate nor Emma were flat characters, as we got to read a lot about their own struggles, choices, growth and changes. Aside from my love for Dr Pym, I felt that the elf princess Wilamena was a pretty interesting character; I didn't like her the first time I saw her (in The Fire Chronicle), but I grew to like her later when I saw that she's actually quite a cool and admirable person. And Rafe was a super intriguing character just like he was in The Fire Chronicle!

I love it, and i'm very animated to read. Rafe is perfect, i don't belive he is the enemy! Very nice!

Ho letto gli altri due libri di Stephens ed aspettavo con ansia l'ultimo della saga. Assolutamente quello che mi aspettavo. Molto bello.

In this book, it is Emma's turn to find and use the book. Naturally, the Dire Magnus tries to make use of Emma to get hold of the book which is said to have the power to destruct him. Emma knows she has to find the last book, the book of death, in order to save the world in combination with her siblings' powers.A dangerous journey ensues, and Emma finds herself alone in a dreary place where nobody knows or remembers her.I have to admit that I relistened to the last chapter of the second volume, cause it had been 2.5 years since I had listened to it, and I couldn't immediately remember on which note it ended, but then it all came back and I was able to follow everything once again.It was well worth waiting for the finale, although I think that 2.5 years is a Very long wait.The narrator, Jim Dale, did another great job at reading this.A thoroughly enjoyable book.