I finally gave up waiting for the library to get this one in audiobook format. I barely remembered the weird dark magical Venice of the other books, but got sucked into the whirling strange wintery adventure in Egypt on a stone lion's back. ( )

So my major questions were answered and nothing's really nagging at me now. Yay! But it was a frustrating read because I kept getting hints of how it could be better. Sometimes Meyer would take the story in a direction I didn't expect, and I was happy to be surprised. However, the book is plagued with head-hopping, telling instead of showing, elements that were included maybe more because they were nifty than because they were essential, and a host of flat characters. Still, I was impressed that Meyer killed Serafin off, and I did like the absolute end, when Merle and Junipa went off on new adventures together. ( )

"Das gläserne Wort" bildet den Abschluss der Merle-Trilogie. Wie zu erwarten war werden hier alle Handlungsstränge (Merle-Serafin-Junipa) wieder zusammengeführt: Definitiv ein Fortschritt zu Band 2. Auch werden, und hierfür schätze ich Kai Meyer als Autor besonders, logische Gründe für alles was geschieht genannt (unnötig zu erwähnen, dass die Erklärungen dem Genre entsprechend einen fantastischen Touch haben). Die gebotenen Erklärungen können weitgehend überzeugen, sind allerdings sehr komplex, sodass ich mir gewünscht hätte, sie wären teilweise schon in den Vorgängerbänden angeklungen - so muss man in diesem Band doch viele Informationen verarbeiten.

Das Ende ist durchaus dramatisch und unerwartet, wenngleich der eigentliche Höhepunkt etwas lapidar mit einem "welche Rolle spielen schon die Einzelheiten?" abgefrühstückt wird - dafür muss ich 1,5 Sterne abziehen, denn das ist wirklich zu wenig und unbefriedigend. Als würde man den Herrn der Ringe schreiben und Frodos Handlungsstrang im dritten Band durch ein "er schaffte es den Ring zu zerstören. Welche Rolle spielen da die Einzelheiten?" ersetzen. So nicht! Genau um der Einzelheiten willen lese ich Bücher - um der einzelnen Gedanken, Gefühle und Taten der Charaktere, sowie der Details der fantastischen Welten willen. Daher war ich doch enttäuscht vom Abschlussband, obwohl ich auch ihn gern gelesen habe. ( )

What I Liked. All of the individual story lines make sense now. And I do mean all of them. What this tale ended up being, once you cut through all of the weird world building, was a mystery. A who-done-it and why puzzle full of misdirection and interesting twists. On the whole, I loved the continuing creativity and I enjoyed how it all wrapped up in ways I did not expect. Despite being YA, there was not a sappy, feel good ending either. It was bittersweet, partially tragic but true to the story.

What I Didn't Like. I never did feel comfortable in this world. It was just too all over the place. I understand that an alternate reality is going to develop differently from ours and I accept that. However the mix of technology and ancient history wasn't one I could wrap my head around. Sabers and rifles, ancient gods and biblical references, steam factories and magical flying sunbarks, submarines and oar driven galleys, magic working alchemists and laboratory scientists. I also had a bit of a motivation problem. Not involving the grand scheme of things, because that is all explained in this conclusion. My problem lay in the motivation of the protagonists; the choices they made and the ones they didn't make but let others make for them. Alot of the time is was like they were just along for the ride because they had nothing better to do.

Conclusion. In terms of plot and pacing, this was a great book. In terms of creativity alone it was priceless. Unfortunately, the worldbuilding nagged at me though out. I just could not accept the mix of really ancient with fairly modern. Of course, I am not exactly the target audience. Maybe a teen would be more focused on the story itself to the exclusion of the odd mix of magic and technology and less inclined to feel the need to develop any kind of bond with the characters. And I can't rule out the possibility that some things were lost in the translation.

For more detail please read full review @ Dragons, Heroes and Wizards. ( )

unerwartetes Ende ( )