Sebastien
4-5 English Mrs. Monaco
4/20/10
LETTER ESSAY #1: THE SETTLERS OF RAYNE
Dear Mrs. Monaco,
I am currently reading the book The Settlers of Rayne have been for a while now. It is another book in the Pendragon series, and is one of my favorites. It is only not as good as the second book in the series which exceeded my expectations. I would rate this book at a nine out of ten, once again because of the sluggishness in the beginning of the book that seems to be very common in this series.
The quote that I chose is the quote, "you went in search of the truth, a truth that has been hidden from the people of Ibara for centuries." I picked this quote because it is when the leaders of Ibara and the main characters are discussing why they held the truth from the people. It turns out that it was because there are to many dangers in the outside world. But also because if they told them about the world many people would go to explore and loose their lives to the flighters, a group of the last survivers of the destruction of their population, who had turned to savages.
I wish that the author (McHale) made the book more to the point in the beginning of the book. It is always an intro to the character and what has happened in previous books so that new readers are not lost and don’t know what is happening. It is as if you could skip the first hundred pages and not miss anything important. Although this is a useful tool for new readers it becomes a nuisance for readers of the whole series.
I believe that the main character, Bobby, is a character that has developed much in the time that has passed in the books. In the first few books he was more of a character that didn’t want to accept the reality that he was in. Now he has developed into more of a character that would do anything to help the race that is in trouble. I say race because he has to go to different territories or worlds to help them from destruction.
I wonder often how the author chooses how to develop each plot as in the setting, characters, and problem. This is something that I wondered even more in this book because the world he is in was lost in the fourth book, Quillan. You find out later in the book that the island of Ibara is the only thing that is left and they are actually on the territory of Quillan. After I found this out, I wondered why it was on Quillan that he decided to revisit. I believe now that it was because it was the territory where they had lost by the most. There was no hope for Quillan. But after the loss, a small group survived, escaped and flourished on the island of Ibara, creating another chance for success on Quillan.
I am very pleased with this book and also the series. There is always that little twist that you where not expecting in the middle of the book. It is an awesome book and has a very interesting plot and series of events but has one major flaw, that it is slow in the beginning. That is why I rated it a nine out of ten with ten being the best.
From,
Sebastien
