Prisoners of the Pit

Bionicle Legends #7

by Greg Farshtey

A new world awaits -- complete with new dangers, new foes, and new allies. The legend continues . . .

Trapped in the ocean's depths, mutated beyond recognition, the Toa must face their greatest challenges. Can they convince the Matoran who live in the watery city of Mahri Nui to trust them? Can they retreive the Mask of Life before the Barraki figure out how to control it? And will they be able to overcome the greatest challenge of the return of Makuta? What does this shadowy figure want from Matoro? And will Matoro end up betraying his friends before it's all over? Enter the unknown where friends can become enemies and enemies might be the only ones you can trust.

Genres: Fantasy, Science Fiction, Childrens, Adventure

144 pages, Paperback

First published July 1, 2007

About the author

Greg Farshtey is the author of the popular BIONICLE chapter books and Level 3 readers, as well as the long-running BIONICLE comic book series. His day job is Editor-in-Chief and head writer for the LEGO Club Magazine and the LEGO BrickMaster Magazine.

Greg has been writing since fourth grade. After earning a degree in Communications from the State University of New York at Geneseo, he worked as a reporter, sports editor, game designer and editor, and copywriter before joining LEGO Company in 2000. Before becoming involved with BIONICLE, he wrote game material for such diverse properties as Star Wars, Indiana Jones, and Tales From the Crypt.

Greg is the author of more than 30 novels and guidebooks, as well as the author or co-author of more than 35 game sourcebooks and adventures.

He lives in West Hartford, Connecticut.

For more information, please see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greg_Far...

Reviews

[Leonardo · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book has a lot of ground to cover as it sets up all of the pieces for the final battle under the sea. Some highlights are we finally get Makuta’s return in the form of the Maxilos robot he possesses. Hydraxon running around trying to throw everyone he sees in jail is funny. Hahli turning into the Little Mermaid Gangster is also hilarious. The Barraki too easily fall into infighting, methinks, but it’s overlooked for being cool given what Mantax will be investigating. Regardless, lots of spooky stuff afoot and now, before I get to Downfall, I need to read some story serials.

[Danny Duff · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Kongu immediately took two [Cordak blasters]. When the others gave him questioning looks, he simply said, 'Two hands.' " Iconic.
I enjoyed this one a lot more than volume 6. It helped that the characters I knew, the Toa Inika, were back. I was disappointed to learn that the Toa Mahri commercial was not entirely lore accurate. In the commercial the Toa travel deep underwater in this submarine vehicle and have to dawn this new equipment and scuba gear. But in the book, they travel from Voya Nui through this tunnel, and then get transformed in Toa Mahri by the mask of life. This is more consistent with previous waves of Bionicle, where characters do get transformed by various supernatural forces, often related to Mata Nui, but I really like the drama of the commercial, the gearing up for a dangerous mission. It also feels more consistent with the character designs. They all have tubes connecting to their masks, which implies they are still breathing air. But in the book, they establish that the Toa can no longer breathe air, like fish.
Anyways, the main plot of this one revolves around a mad dash for the mask of life. The Barraki are each trying to get the mask for themselves, various conflicts ensue. We also have the introduction of Hydraxon and Maxilos. Hydraxon was formally Dekar, one of the Matoran of Mahri Nui, transformed by the mask of life into this prison guard, charged with sending the Barraki back into the pit. Maxilos is a robot possessed with the spirit of Makuta. Who ends up being sort of a devil on the shoulder for Matoro, who is given a fair amount of page time, setting up his importance.
Hali gets to shine in this volume as she is literally in her element. She ends up knowing what to do most of the time and calling a lot of the shots.
The book ends with a check in with the Toa Nuva, who we haven't seen in a while. They've been sent on a quest to prepare Mati Nui for awakening. Which means, activating the Bohrok.
Still probably too much going on, and too many characters for one book. Crazy to me that there is only three books in this arc. But I am along for the ride.

[Sully Leier · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Toa Inika arrive on the scene. Lots of setup. Maxilos and Matoro's conversations are really interesting. Its realy fun when the characters are like "this strange creature doesn't have any mechanical parts, and instead of being created the normal way they appear out of these fragile white orbs" cuz its weird robot guys interacting with normal animals.

[Ben · Rating 3 out of 5]

This stuff helps me fall asleep.

[Karsun B · Rating 5 out of 5]

Love to re-read these books even when I am older.

[Eduardo · Rating 4 out of 5]

“Next thing, you’ll be telling me you’re not from the Pit–that you’re Toa, or some black water like that.”

“We are Toa,” said Nuparu.

“Yeah,” added Kongu. “Who else dresses like this?”
—

The 2007 underwater storyline continues!

I feel as if… look, the Toa Inika, and then Mahri, don’t get enough time to get used to things. The Mata had a cool thing going on with being chosen heroes who knew their powers, but still had to quest for masks and stuff. The 2004 and 2005 storylines had the heroes go through a process of learning their powers.

Jaller’s team, on the other hand, suddenly gets powers in 2006, and the story contrives a way to make sure they don’t have to spend too much time learning to use them before they fight the Piraka. Then in 2007, they transform AGAIN, get different mask powers, and then go underwater, and they take a shockingly short amount of time to adjust. Kongu and Jaller, being Toa of air and fire, should have to work out if they can do anything at all.

Also, Hydraxon. Look, I love this guy, and I have his set–that doesn’t change that the Mask of Life bringing him back feels really weird and roundabout, and complicates the story unnecessarily. I’m not saying don’t bring him back, you had a set and all, but instead of resurrecting his body, the Mask grabbed a Matoran and changed him into Hydraxon? And then not do anything with that dual identity thing? Why does that make any sense to anyone?

This was so much going on in the 2007 Mahri Nui arc, and I don’t know if the story could handle it. Not only was there this book series, this was also the year that web serials began, in which the story exploded into several Plot lines that ended up becoming a hydra of story that… ultimately felt kind of hollow.

Regardless, there is still a lot to like about this book. Greg Farshtey is still remarkably good at creating boss-sounding one-liners, considering that these are tiny books written for middle schoolers. And there are surprisingly good fight scenes? The battle between the Barraki army and Matoro’s undead fish army (yeah, there’s a mask power to make zombies in BIONICLE???) is fantastic. And the duel between Hydraxon and Nocturne’s pretty epic.

Also! Makuta’s back. And boy, is he fun. I mean, no, not for Matoro, he’s a piece of garbage to poor Matoro, but he’s a very entertaining villain and thank goodness he’s back. He’s been missed.

I just wish this storyline had more room to breathe, you know? So there’s time for the villains to be developed, the heroes to adjust, and all the other elements to feel like they’re not sprouting up out of nowhere.

Now I don’t remember exactly how this year’s storyline ends, so we’ll see how the next book goes for me.

[Kayla · Rating 4 out of 5]

Favorite series in elementary school

[Jerome Otte · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another fine Bionicle tale, even if there is no real sense of crisis or urgency.

[Sebastian Victoriano]

Really good book.