The Violet Keystone (The Seventh Tower, #6)

#33
Title: The Violet Keystone (The Seventh Tower, #6)
Author: Garth Nix 
Publisher: Scholastic
Year: 2001
233 pages 


+ Good plotting, satisfying series conclusion
- Some trouble with zip, continuity

The last in the series. A fine conclusion to a generally well-conceived and well-executed children's fantasy series. It's still a little puzzling why a series called "the Seventh Tower" has only six books, but I will live with the mystery. In this concluding volume, Tal and Milla again converge, both symbolically as each learns how to use the violet keystone and proximately as their paths converge. The Freefolk Crow adds a nice unknown element, and the sequence of revelations over the last few books here reaches its logical conclusion.

Though I enjoyed this book and found it satisfying, there were several points I wish had been more fully explored--how the Forgetting was first broken, for example, and the implications of the present conflict for relations between Aenir and Chosen. The shutdown of the Veil and several other points that ought to have been climactic were disappointingly brief, under-emphatic, and vague. In addition, this book had several typos and a couple of minor continuity problems that suggest a rush to print. Still, this was an enjoyable and well-written series and I look forward to more Garth Nix.