The Overending

Emil and PorNart, having barely escaped the clutches of the High One, and with his forces in hot pursuit, fall in with a small group of Beasts dedicated to helping slaves escape. After a harrowing journey through the dangerous and deadly Grand Deep, they learn the story of these freedom runners — Angelana, and her parents Ord and Mar-Marie, whose entire way of life was ruined by slave traders and who have too much courage, compassion, and integrity to sit by and watch while other Beasts are suffering. Having themselves lost friends and family to slavers, Emil and PorNart insist on joining the cause, especially when they learn that Emil’s grandfather, Klemes, long believed lost at sea, is most probably still alive, but a slave in the wretched fortress of Tilk Duroaw.

Bem Madsoor also refuses to sit back any longer as she sees her favorite ports taken over by evil forces and more and more Beasts captured and sold into slavery. No one is safe, and she conceives a bold plan to wreak havoc with the slavers. Her actions intersect with those of Angelana, Emil, and PorNart, setting in motion a series of events that unites all freedom-loving Beasts and shakes the very foundations of the High One’s rule.

I have not had the pleasure of reading the first book in this, the Wood Cow series, so I admit to feeling a little lost at first. After reading this one, however, I am eager to read the first and anxiously await the next. The Overending picks up, apparently, exactly where the first book ended, with a presupposition of familiarity with this world, its tribes, and its people. However, the slaves-to-freedom story is intensely compelling in its own right, and captivates from beginning to end. In this book, almost all characters have already chosen sides, so are either all good or all bad, although one group of Beasts changes from apathy to revolution upon seeing the slaves’ plight. It is a fun, exciting, straightforward, good-vs-evil epic, full of action, suspense, danger and tense moments, revelations and reunions, with a lovely, perfectly satisfying conclusion, which will be extremely appealing to Tweens and younger teens. It addresses the importance of doing what is right even in the face of danger, and overcoming difficulties by working together and using each person’s strengths to their best advantage. Great lessons in a great story make this book a delight.