Peter and the Secret of Rundoon

Q&D- cute third installment to this series. Enjoyed this more than the first two which I think is because they had set up enough to just enjoy this one.

Unfortunately, while I had enjoyed previous books in this series, reading this book made me reevaluate the value of the shelf space this series was taking up. About a third of the way into the book, I found myself wishing I was reading something else - pretty much anything else- but I persevered. That's not to say it's bad, but it's not as charming as the first two books. Like it's predecessors, this is a retelling of the Peter Pan mythology, changing details to fit it's new, more complex story line. However, they've stretched it out over the course of several books. I feel like that was really it's fatal flaw. They're writing plots that might be passable in an original novel, but they have to shoehorn in all these little details to make it fit the original Peter Pan narrative. Honestly, it's not cute anymore. And, to be honest, this book did not need to be nearly 500 pages long. This book did feel like an ending, which is why I've decided not to read on in the series. I feel that this book didn't need anything more to fulfill the story. They've connected all the dots that I think are relevant. (Although they haven't mentioned Tiger Lily, but I think they just changed her name to suit the story.) If this book didn't appeal to me, I see no reason to go on reading in a series where I feel like skimming the contents would satisfy me. All in all, I might recommend this to those who have read the first two books just on principle. I really do feel like this should have been the final book in the series. Why there are five is beyond me.

I'm so glad that the series actually featured Rundoon and that Rundoon had such a prominent part after just being mentioned in passing allusions. I have to admit that I came into this particular book at a bit of a disadvantage due to not being able to listen to the end of the previous book. (Somehow I was missing the last disc of the audiobook.) That meant spending the first few chapters trying to discern what happened at the end of the second book based on the information given at the beginning of this particular one not focusing just on this book in particular. Jim Dale continues to be an amazing narrator, my all-time favorite hands down. My reading experience of these books would not be the same if I had read them in print for rather than as audiobooks with Jim Dale narrating. If you have never listened to any of Jim Dale's narration, you need to fix that immediately. That being said, I think that Barry and Pearson did this book a bit of a disservice by using it as a sort of wrap-up piece to the series (which added two more books later). Almost all of the narrative seemed to be focusing on answering questions raised in previous books with the addition of the blood-thirsty Scorpions thrown in as a convenient plot device to get Peter, the boys and Hook off the island and to Rundoon. My opinion of the book, however, is still very high. (The first two sentences of this paragraph were the only negative things I can say about this book and the entire series...what I've read so far at least.) As a wrap-up piece, this book certainly was chock-full of all kinds of juicy information and allusions to the "canonical" Peter Pan of J.M. Barrie's origination. In addition, this book also served to explain the star stuff and place the earth (and the story itself) in a much larger context. I really loved this book and am so glad that it's not the end of the series. The characters in the other two books are certainly different but Jim Dale's narration continues, as does this marvelous take on the Peter Pan story. I continue to highly recommend this series.