Alcatraz versus the Shattered Lens

Alcatraz sacrafices his powers to save the world. Oops. Gave away some of the plot points. But that's the point of this blog. The librarians have nearly taken Mokia. Alcatraz decides he can lure more help be going there himself. He ends up becoming king due to the incapacitance of the existing King and the Smedry royal line. They capture his mother (because she has to appear somewhere in each book.) He begins to side with her views that it may not be a good thing for everyone to have a Smedry talent. They also meet the shattered lens librarians who really don't like glass and do a good job destroying it. Alcatraz gets a better understanding of what the Smedry talents are and channels his talent into the people protecting Mokia, thereby defending Mokie, but also eliminating the talents.

That's the plot. It is cool. But like the other Alcatraz books, the non-plot stuff is what really makes it.

Alcatraz breaks into a discussion of religions. He explains how they all differ (its all about what you can and can't eat.)

Teddy Bears are grenades. Some explode inwards, while others kill all non-living things but don't harm any living things. These come in handy when fighting against ro-bats.

A young Smedry has a talent at being bad at math. This talent can enable many more (or fewer things to appear)

And we have chapters. The chapter numbering sequence is bizarre with the chapters being all out of order (and numbers like Infinity +1 being used.)

For some reason, this book did not seem as engaging as the others, but that may be because I zoomed through it so fast. It does seem to bring things to a somewhat palatable conclusion, but also leaves enough open for further sequels.