Shifting Sands: No.4 (Deltora Quest)

Great book series!

I particularly liked books one and two of this series, but I was a bit disappointed by book three, ("City of the Rats"). It seemed that book three sort of wandered around with odd sub-plots, until it all came together nicely at the end. Having just finished this volume four, I see the interesting pattern that Rodda is following. Like book three, this one wanders away from the main storyline about one-third of the way in. There is then a very lengthy portion that is just totally tangential to the companion's quest. Then, there is a wham-bang ending, where what happened in the middle comes back to illuminate the closing action. Very clever and very satisfying. The beauty of this is that it breaks the possible tedium of "kill the monster, get the gem" that would have set in book after book. After all, we need to find and defeat seven monsters. It's hard to keep that interesting. But Rodda, by putting an apparently unrelated and diverting adventure in the middle of each quest, has managed

The Shifting Sands is one of those books that transports you to a different world. It will grab anyone, but it is aimed for 11-14 year olds. Along with the other books from the Deltora quest series, it is amazing. Anyone who likes Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings, will love this book! Lief, Barda and Jasmine have fond 3 gems, already, to add to the Belt of Deltora. They must possess all seven gems, if they want to succeed in their quest to defeat the evil Shadowlord, once and for all...... but will it be enough??

The cover of the book was a bit torn up (minor), but other than that it was in great condition.

Great Series!

Great seller! Book was great!

My 8 yr old son loves this series! It has finally gotten him into reading on his own, and he is very proud to be reading chapter books with very little drawings in it! He feels like a grown up. It doesn't seem to overwhelm him from the size of some of the other children's chapter books.

I am the reading partner for a grandchild in an accelerated reading program and the book arrived as promised, and was extremely interesting and well written.