Undine thinks she could be happy living in a world where Stephen is still alive. Back in the real world, Trout could be happy too—as long as he doesn't think about Undine's disappearance, or why her shadow appears in his photographs.
Phoenix is new in town, a drifter, passing through with his conjuring tricks. But they can't keep drifting forever, and one hot summer night their worlds collide. Coincidence or confluence? Illusion or reality? Trout isn't sure he wants an answer and Phoenix isn't telling. All Undine knows is that she must find a way to return home. Someone is calling her name. "Sister, come to me." In the spellbinding conclusion to the Undine trilogy, the girl and the magic must become one to quell the darkness forever.
The conclusion to the Undine series. Drift apparently is only available here in audiobook form, but it's a wonderful reading/performance by Melissa Eccleston. One of the best audiobook performances I've heard, actually.
I loved this series SO MUCH. The world-building is fascinating, the family story had me completely invested, and I cared about all the characters -- all of whom had flaws.
What if there wasn't 1 world but many alternate worlds? And what if you had the power to step through time and space and reach those other worlds. Could you change things? Should you even try? Should you try to save a 4 year old in one world if it would kill a teenager in another? Absolutely fascinating and horrifying. Russon at her best.
I have NO idea why this is almost unobtainable as a print book - it may not be perfect, but it's nonetheless a necessary conclusion to a trilogy I found very enjoyable. Thank goodness for my Audible.co.uk membership, as I certainly wouldn't have been willing to pay the kinds of prices I saw for the audiobook, but would have been sorry to have been unable to finish off the series.
Not going to do a proper write-up, as it'd be meaningless without having read the first two books. It went in a somewhat surprising direction, and I wasn't sure *all* of the behaviour was entirely consistent with the characters in the other two books, but overall I found it satisfying and at times, very moving.
A fascinating ending to the trilogy. I enjoyed this much more than the first two books, particularly with the interweaving of the various timelines and alternate worlds.
Prospero’s dog Ariel makes a warm return in this story. Jasper returned, Lou and Mim made reappearances also. Grunt seems to have joined the Prospero’s family as well.
Through a three book series we learn about magic coming through to the world through the tender aged Undine, a girl part selfish and lazy but admittedly for her part the absolute master of the universe. Her universe appeared to have room for Undine only, although her selfishness whimpers because of it, she learns to deal with life by the help of number one friend Trout. For a moment, Trout the boy living next door is willing to assume chaos is the real thing. A living breathing thing after what he sees, what magic can do in the hand of Undine? Undine unfolds everything, herself included into her magic and she disappears on Trout and everyone else for that matter, he’s willing to wait for her, but for how long? Of course at some point it appears to be the coming of age story of love and magic with tough abstract procedures from a fairytale from Undine’s point of view, her inner most imagination. Other times I guess I was just glad the story had come to an extraordinary end.
I read the prologue and the first chapter of this, after picking it up second-hand, and they show such easy command of language and character that I think I'd be doing this book a disservice if I pushed through now without waiting and getting the first 2 books in the series first.
The final book in the Undine trilogy is a lot darker and sadder than the other two books. There is a different element to the magic as well. Very enjoyable and a good ending to the series.