{"id":2463,"date":"2021-04-21T15:00:26","date_gmt":"2021-04-21T21:00:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/benjamin-m-weilert.com\/?p=2463"},"modified":"2021-02-17T20:31:47","modified_gmt":"2021-02-18T03:31:47","slug":"book-a-darkling-plain-2006","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/benjamin-m-weilert.com\/index.php\/2021\/04\/21\/book-a-darkling-plain-2006\/","title":{"rendered":"BOOK: A Darkling Plain (2006)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong><u><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft \" src=\"https:\/\/i.gr-assets.com\/images\/S\/compressed.photo.goodreads.com\/books\/1549601272l\/43888835._SX318_.jpg\" alt=\"A Darkling Plain\" width=\"300\" height=\"300\">A Darkling Plain<\/u><\/strong><br>\nYear: 2006<br>\nAuthor: Philip Reeve<br>\nLength: 931 minutes \/ 15.52 hours<\/p>\n<p>With the way <a href=\"http:\/\/benjamin-m-weilert.com\/index.php\/2020\/12\/30\/book-infernal-devices-2005\/\"><em>Infernal Devices<\/em><\/a> ended, I immediately knew there had to be a fourth book to finish this unique series. Few books resolve their respective series as well as <em>A Darkling Plain<\/em> does, which I can appreciate. In fact, the final epilogue was as beautiful as it was tragic. Along the way, the little loose ends tie up nicely so that all the characters are given some closure\u2014whether or not they deserve it.<\/p>\n<p>I wasn&#8217;t wild with the time-skip tactic that <em>Infernal Devices<\/em> used since it basically split this series into two larger stories. <em><a href=\"http:\/\/benjamin-m-weilert.com\/index.php\/2019\/10\/16\/book-mortal-engines-2001\/\">Mortal Engines<\/a><\/em> and <a href=\"http:\/\/benjamin-m-weilert.com\/index.php\/2020\/12\/16\/book-predators-gold-2003\/\"><em>Predator&#8217;s Gold<\/em><\/a> covered Hester and Tom&#8217;s relationship, while the last two books covered their daughter&#8217;s adventures. Of course, I was shocked with the ending of <em>Infernal Devices<\/em>, which did get an explanation in this book, even if it lessened the impact of that plot twist. That being said, some of the characters&#8217; fates were foreshadowed well ahead of this book, which left their ultimate fate somewhat anti-climactic.<\/p>\n<p>Overall, I enjoyed how the idea of mobile cities eating each other in an evolutionary survival of the fittest came to its logical conclusion in this book. It&#8217;s such a peculiar concept that was thoroughly explored in the previous three volumes so that this book could wrap up this phase in the post-apocalyptic timeline with enough room to give some hope for a future. After all, I have yet to run across a science fiction series that combines so many tropes so well and manages to conclude its complicated plotlines in such a satisfying way.<\/p>\n<p>A satisfying ending of a unique series, I give <em>A Darkling Plain<\/em> 4.0 stars out of 5.<\/p>\n<h2><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-647\" src=\"http:\/\/benjamin-m-weilert.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/255px-Five-pointed_star_svg-150x150.png\" alt=\"255px-Five-pointed_star_svg\" width=\"50\" height=\"50\">&nbsp;<strong><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-647\" src=\"http:\/\/benjamin-m-weilert.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/255px-Five-pointed_star_svg-150x150.png\" alt=\"255px-Five-pointed_star_svg\" width=\"50\" height=\"50\">&nbsp;<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-647\" src=\"http:\/\/benjamin-m-weilert.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/255px-Five-pointed_star_svg-150x150.png\" alt=\"255px-Five-pointed_star_svg\" width=\"50\" height=\"50\">&nbsp;<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-647\" src=\"http:\/\/benjamin-m-weilert.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/255px-Five-pointed_star_svg-150x150.png\" alt=\"255px-Five-pointed_star_svg\" width=\"50\" height=\"50\"><\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><a href=\"http:\/\/benjamin-m-weilert.com\/index.php\/bmw-the-critic\/\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"820\" height=\"312\" src=\"http:\/\/benjamin-m-weilert.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/BMW-the-Critic.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-1821\" srcset=\"https:\/\/benjamin-m-weilert.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/BMW-the-Critic.jpg 820w, https:\/\/benjamin-m-weilert.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/BMW-the-Critic-300x114.jpg 300w, https:\/\/benjamin-m-weilert.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/BMW-the-Critic-768x292.jpg 768w, https:\/\/benjamin-m-weilert.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/BMW-the-Critic-640x244.jpg 640w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 820px) 100vw, 820px\" \/><\/a><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A Darkling Plain Year: 2006 Author: Philip Reeve Length: 931 minutes \/ 15.52 hours With the way Infernal Devices ended, I immediately knew there had to be a fourth book to finish this unique series. Few books resolve their respective series as well as A Darkling Plain does, which I can appreciate. In fact, the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10,54],"tags":[47,2691,55,2692,1632,2044,8,28,30],"class_list":["post-2463","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-4-0-stars","category-book","tag-47","tag-a-darkling-plain","tag-book","tag-hungry-city","tag-mortal-engines","tag-philip-reeve","tag-review","tag-series","tag-young-adult"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/benjamin-m-weilert.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2463","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/benjamin-m-weilert.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/benjamin-m-weilert.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/benjamin-m-weilert.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/benjamin-m-weilert.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2463"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/benjamin-m-weilert.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2463\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2469,"href":"https:\/\/benjamin-m-weilert.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2463\/revisions\/2469"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/benjamin-m-weilert.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2463"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/benjamin-m-weilert.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2463"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/benjamin-m-weilert.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2463"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}