Merle and her allies (including romantic interest Serafin) take the final, fearful steps necessary to save their beloved Venice from the marauding Egyptian Empire. Dual story lines sap tension, and attempts to connect the many plot strands of the previous books can be convoluted, but Merle and Serafin's reunion reinvigorates the narrative, propelling the inventive trilogy to a bittersweet end.

A series that began with offbeat potential ends with tedium. Merle and Junipa, emerging from Hell, discover Egypt covered in snow. The unprecedented cold comes from the presence of Winter, a figure searching for his paramour Summer. Summer's imprisoned in the Iron Eye, a stronghold of mirrors made by sphinxes as part of the Stone Light's plan to take over the world. The Stone Light also wants to take over other worlds—worlds that Meyer never shows, except the "mirror world" that connects them all. Ancient legend connects the sphinxes, the Stone Light, the Egyptian Empire (which has ravaged Venice and the world), the Flowing Queen and Vermithrax, the flying stone lion. Meyer's prose is verbosely distancing; for example, in an action scene, "The mummies wore armor of leather and steel, but even that could not conceal that these undead soldiers were specimens with uncommonly robust proportions." Excessive explanation and exposition renders this conclusion dull and slow. (Fantasy. 11-14)

Gr 5-7-Egypt is the setting for the final volume of this epic fantasy: an Egypt unpeopled except for the powerful and violent sphinxes and the main characters, and bound in devastating snow and ice. The story picks up shortly after Merle and Junipa escape from Hell on the back of Vermithrax, the obsidian lion, in The Stone Light (S & S, 2006). With few explanations for latecomers, Meyer's trilogy should be seen as a single work divided into three physical volumes, rather than three stand-alone novels. Merle, Junipa, and Serafin are reunited in the nonstop action that courses through the book, and go on to work with Lalapeya, the Flowing Queen, and Vermithrax to save the world from the devastating evil that threatens it. Meyer explains the mysteries at the heart of the series, including the nature of the water mirror and Merle's heritage, the true nature of both the sphinx Lalapeya and the Flowing Queen, and the truth about the threat posed by Egypt to the world. The relationship between Merle and Serafin also reaches a resolution, although so much attention is paid to the action that the emotional power of Merle's crucial choice at the end is muted. Buy where the first two titles have been popular.-Sue Giffard, Ethical Culture Fieldston School, New York City Copyright 2008 Reed Business Information.