I re-read this book as part of the "finish the series" challenge I'm doing this year. I decided since I really liked the series, that I'd re-read all of them. I started re-reading the first one & was a little bored with it, so I decided to jump ahead & re-read this one.

I originally gave this book five stars, so I know I greatly enjoyed it, but I wasn't writing reviews (regularly, anyway) back in 2009, when I last read the series. Now, I'm only giving it four stars. Honestly, the characters are great, but the plot just seemed a little thin for a roughly 600 page book. Lots of stuff happens, but the main plot was "let's go rescue Nicko & Snorri" (and I'm finding that I don't really care for Snorri, at least in this book; she's got zero personality).

The series reminds me alot of Harry Potter & I do think fans of Harry Potter will enjoy this one, too, but it lacks the originality of HP's world & is definitely written for a younger audience then the HP books (at least the latter ones). The villians aren't very evil, nothing truly bad ever really happens in Septimus' world.