Okay, so our little crew makes its way off to italy then Japan. Yes, it's kind of a silly premise, but if you weren't suspending disbelief that far, you wouldn't have made it to book 10.I really enjoyed the battles and tactics in this book. Probably more battle than any other book in the series. As far as I'm concerned, that's a good thing. The characters have all settled into a David Eddings-like rhythm, where it's all good friendships and inside jokes.
My only disappointment is the big sticker on the front of the book saying "The Final Battle". I guess this is the end of the series? It's not set up as such. There's no great overarching obstacle to overcome, just a regular, book-sized obstacle.
I had hoped that the coming Temujai invasion hinted at in The Battle for Skandia would happen, and that would bring some nice closure to the series, but... no dice. John Flanagan, if you're reading this, it's not too late. Pretty easy to write a book 11 and fix that problem.
