Midnighters

In case you’re the sort of person who only buys trilogies when they’re done, I thought I might mention that Scott Westerfeld (whom I have mentioned before) has finished his Midnighters trilogy with the latest volume, Blue Noon.

The story in these books is fairly straightforward; as I described them last time,

His Midnighters series is about a group of teens who literally can live in the witching hour, during which everything else in the world is frozen–except the ancient magical beings that humanity forced out of the world back in prehistoric days, and which have shaped most of our superstitions and religions ever since.

Well, we learned in the first two books that the areas of the world wherein the monsters can show up, and wherein the “blue time” manifests, were very small. But now they are growing, and ordinary people can be sucked in (and eaten, but only after their nightmares have been eaten too). This leads, of course, to the final confrontation between the teens who know the truth, and the Forces of Evil(tm).

I was worried, when I started this volume, that the series was actually going to run longer; but the book actually resolves everything a little too quickly, if anything. The ending manages to be bittersweet, but it does feel like the arcs weren’t really fully developed.

Anyway — worth reading. Ursula K. LeGuin even blurbed ’em, so… The first two:

• Midnighters #1: The Secret Hour (Midnighters)
• Midnighters #2: Touching Darkness (Midnighters)

Now, I’m off to watch the newly released DVDs of Howl’s Moving Castle, Totoro, and possibly my favorite Ghibli movie, Whisper of the Heart. Or maybe the new Harry Potter, since I’ve never seen it.