Another typically explosive, fun read from the reliable Mr Stroud
4 stars
The Scarlett and Browne series is like a mash-up. The setting is similar to John Wyndham's "The Chrysalids", but Stroud's mutant outcasts struggle against religious tyranny in a very British post-apocalyptic world, rather than Wyndham's north American nightmare future. There's also a bit of the flavour of "His Dark Materials", "Riddley Walker" and "The Prince in Waiting" in Stroud's latest trilogy... all very good quality ingredients, blending to create a dish with a flavour of its own.
A not-so secret ingredient is the influence of the western, as the sharpshooting, gunslinging outlaw Scarlett McCain faces off at high noon against various adversaries. Hilariously, she and Albert Browne roam the wildlands astride bicycles , rather than horses.
And so we come to this conclusion of the trilogy. I re-read the first two books to get back in the groove, and perhaps I overdosed a bit, because I found this third installment …
The Scarlett and Browne series is like a mash-up. The setting is similar to John Wyndham's "The Chrysalids", but Stroud's mutant outcasts struggle against religious tyranny in a very British post-apocalyptic world, rather than Wyndham's north American nightmare future. There's also a bit of the flavour of "His Dark Materials", "Riddley Walker" and "The Prince in Waiting" in Stroud's latest trilogy... all very good quality ingredients, blending to create a dish with a flavour of its own.
A not-so secret ingredient is the influence of the western, as the sharpshooting, gunslinging outlaw Scarlett McCain faces off at high noon against various adversaries. Hilariously, she and Albert Browne roam the wildlands astride bicycles , rather than horses.
And so we come to this conclusion of the trilogy. I re-read the first two books to get back in the groove, and perhaps I overdosed a bit, because I found this third installment lost a bit of the spark. The villains aren't as delectably evil, the laugh-out-loud sardonic humour is a bit less frequent, and somehow the competent Albert Browne is less appealing than the innocent neophyte of the earlier books.
But "Legendary" retains the explosive action and deadly cliffhangers of the rest of the series. Stroud is a master storyteller and his writing unfolds with deceptive simplicity. The monstrous beasts and deadly buried labyrinths of the post-apocalyptic future are vivid and beautifully imagined. The relationship between the titular characters remains nicely balanced.
These books are such fun to read, but they contain an element of gravitas. The ecumenical theological-industrial tyranny Stroud conjures up provides exactly the sort of consciousness-raising we need young readers to be exposed to right now. We are already battling the ever-present threat of cults, terrorists, theocrats and clerical abusers here in the proto-apocalyptic world where we find ourselves in 2025.