The Fugitive and the Vanishing Man by Rod Duncan

47566429. sy475 The series is finally over. I looked over my reviews for the entire six books and realized it has been a very bumpy ride. "Fall of the Gas-Lit Empire" was much stronger than "The Map of Unknown Things" to me. The first trilogy was more about adventure and magic. The second trilogy was slogged down in politics.

 "Fall of the Gas-Lit Empire" occurred in an England torn in two with recurring characters and a unity of purpose. They flowed from one to the other even if I liked one book over another. 

 That cohesion and unity of world didn't turn up in the second trilogy of Elizabeth Barnabus. In fact, she is the only string tying the three books together. And she wasn't a very good string, unfortunately. Her charm seemed to dwindle the longer things went on.

I truly loved the start of Elizabeth Barnabus's journey with its gypsies and daring. The clear tensions gave the story direction and kept the pages turning. Once she left the continent, it became all politics--very preachy politics. It just felt so forced that we had to read pages and pages of social justice. 

 This conclusion was spent so much on Edwin's internal dilemmas I really wanted to just shut it down and never come back. Also, we get the family reunited finally, and it is all over in the blink of an eye. What!

 Since I always need to point out something positive, my favorite scene of the entire "Map of Unknown Things" is the Vanishing Man. It brought back all that glorious mayhem and magic from "Fall of the Gas-Lit Empire." So at least the book ended on a happy note for me.

 I'm honestly glad to wipe my hands of this series, though. I'm not sure if I will continue to read any Duncan books in the future. We will have to wait and see how it plays out.

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