Das Buch der unsterblichen Helden

The Edge Chronicles (chronological) #10

by Paul Stewart, Chris Riddell (Illustrator), Wolfram Ströle (Übersetzer)

Der letzte Band der Klippenland-Chroniken Das Klippenland am Ende des Dritten Flugzeitalters: Erste Expeditionen erkunden den Raum unterhalb der Felsklippe. Sturmphrax ist Anlass für kriegerische Auseinandersetzungen. Das Rätsel um den Verbleib von QUINT, TWIG und ROOK ist gelöst. Und nicht zuletzt der Schleimschmeichler ist endgültig vernichtet. Ein furioser Serienabschluss, der einen farbenprächtigen Bogen von den Anfängen des Klippenlandes bis zu den jüngsten Ereignissen spannt und noch einmal die sagenumwobenen Helden, unvergesslichen Figuren, skurrilen Wesen und wunderlichen Landschaften dieses einzigartigen Kosmos Revue passieren lässt. Ein 800 Seiten starkes Abenteuer - auch für Klippenland-Neulinge!

Genres: Fantasy, Fiction, Young Adult, Childrens, Adventure, Middle Grade, Steampunk

800 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2009

About the author

Paul Stewart is a highly regarded author of books for young readers – from picture books to football stories, fantasy and horror. Together with Chris Riddell he is co-creator of the bestselling Edge Chronicles, which has sold more than three million copies and is available in over twenty languages. They have also collaborated together on lots of other exciting books for children of all ages. The Far-Flung Adventure series includes the Gold Smarties Prize Winner Fergus Crane, and Corby Flood and Hugo Pepper, both Silver Nestle Prize Winners. Then there are the Barnaby Grimes books, two Muddle Earth adventures, and the sci-fi Scavenger and fantasy Wyrmeweald trilogies. For younger readers there is the Blobheads series, while for the very young, Paul has written several picture books, including the Rabbit and Hedgehog series, In the Dark of the Night and, his latest, Wings.

Other authors by this name disambiguation Note:
Paul Stewart - business and management books

Reviews

[Ariel · Rating 5 out of 5]

Plot: Were do I even start?! This final book surpassed my expectations. Stewart weaves in pieces from the original nine books, leaving a true fan (such as myself) tearing up at the little mentions of the past stories. The actions keeps you interested all the way until the end, even creating a sort of "false ending" 100 pages until the actual end.



Characters: Nate is a new character, having not been born in any of the previous trilogies. We learn about his life and are swept up into his adventures with Eudoxia and the others, and follow them until the end.



Setting: I LOVED the return of Riverrise and Sanctaphrax! While they were not the same as they were in the previous books, they were still sentimental scenes that made me cry like a baby.



Overall: This book is my new favorite book. It elegantly brought in a new story while wrapping up the loose ends of the other books. The ending shocked me, but it was an amazing ending that couldn't have been more perfectly done. Paul Stewart is an author that is not well-known, but he knows what he's doing and is one of my favorite authors.

[Andrea · Rating 5 out of 5]

FINIALLY THE BANDERBEAR LIVVVVEEEDDD!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Edward · Rating 5 out of 5]

Frakken amazing. This is the Edge Chronicles near it's finest. The characters are fun(The Professor is my favorite), the plot is very interesting, and it HAS SO MUCH TO IT! This book is delves at least a little into nearly every theme I can think of, with some politics, military, action, adventure, and all that stuff we that love the Edge Chronicles for. The advances in technology are a very believable step forward from the previous books. The illustrations are frigging fantastic , and greatly enhance the book, whether or not you generally like books with pictures. The 600-odd pages may seem intimidating, but I promise you're not going to want to stop reading.

[Roya · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was simultaneously epic, legendary, and supercalifragilisticexpialidocious. Aside from reading the next book, I'm afraid I can't function momentarily and the rest of this review (my emotions after reading this book) will have to be expressed in GIFs.

[Teó · Rating 4 out of 5]

As visible on the amount of time it took me to read this, I think the story told like this was not a good choice.
It is a great closing the all 3 trilogies and I get why it was put into one book only, but I do think that the length of the time it covers and the amount of events in it would have definitely been reason enough to split it into teo books at least (as a surprise, the French edition did this correctly)
Still, a very strong 4 stars, because the story itself is great and as I said, it is a perfect closing to all previous books.

[Chris Whybrow · Rating 4 out of 5]

At last, it is done. I have finally reached the end. Or at least, I have finished the book I feel should have been the end.

'The Immortals' is set in the third age of flight, five centuries after the end of 'Freeglader'. The Edge has industrialised, meaning now there are guns and flying ships have made a comeback thanks to stormphrax fueled engines. It follows Nate Quarter, a distant descendant of the previous three protagonists, as he goes on various adventures through the enormous city states that have grown up over the Edge.

'The Immortals' is a fantastic, almost perfect, end to the series. The worldbuilding has always been the great strength of this series, and its fascinating to see this new industrialised Edge with its new factions and problems. The four cities each have a distinctive character of their own, with my favourite being Riverrise, a massive city built around the mystical source of life. Each city has its own problems. Great Glade at first appears utopian, but corruption lurks beneath the surface. Hive and Riverrise are brutal ethnocratic despotates and the fourth city is a nest of fear eating demons. The protagonist, Nate, while far from the novel's most interesting character, has a great deal more personality than Rook, and the story is helped by him sticking with a close group of distinctive and likable friends for most of the narrative.

But it's not a perfect book. Along the way, Nate loses a few good friends, but rarely seems to miss them. A few annoying staples of the series crop up again here. Nate idolises his father like Quint and Twig before him, but barely remembers his mother. The arc of Hive is very similar to that of the Goblin Nations in 'Freeglader'. Also, the endings for many of the sections were a bit clean cut, with all the problems being miraculously solved in one great flourish. The ending of the book as a whole, is, I'm sorry to say, very weak, relying on a gratuitous Deux ex Machina that is probably one of the worse in the series. The immortal protagonists of the original books just show up in the nick of time and zap all the gloamglozers. Nate does nothign to bring it about. Having him do something to summon the immortals, kill the gloamglozers by throwing chine at them, or having just shooting them like Imbix does actually work would I feel have been far stronger endings.

There are also many small flaws. This is unavoidable in a book of this scale, and the rest was so good I was happy to ignore most of them, but there are two, both relating to the previous books, that I cannot forgive. The first is Heftuft Battleaxe being remembered as a legend after his death. It makes no sense. He sold his own people into slavery and led them into a disastrous war. He was an idiot and a failure and for him to be remembered as the greatest clan chief of them all is laughable. The other is Rook having married Magda. In the Rook trilogy, the two of them had barely any chemistry. I'm not even sure if they spoke to each other at all in the last two books. Before this, I had always assumed Magda had ended up with Xanth, since those two, you know, actually interacted with each other.

Also, Golderayce falling in love with Maugin. Maugin has the physical appearance of a twelve year old girl.

But there are also so many small touches that I feel are just great, and really add to the story. I especially like the character of Dax, a hanger on from the second age of flight, and his debate with Nate over the merits of new technology. I like having Nate and Eudoxia go into the battle of Midwood on the Hive side and witness the horrors of war from the losing side. By far my favourite scene is the wig wig attack. For most of the series, the wig wigs have been this terrifying, unbeatable force, and seeing them actually beaten by new technology and quick thinking is very satisfying. It helps that Weelum probably has the most personality out of the banderbear characters in the series.

Overall, I love this book. It's a fantastic end to one of my favourite series from my childhood.

I'll end by summarising my thoughts on 'The Edge Chronicles' as a whole. I began this reread to see if the series would still hold up, and, if I'm painfully honest, while many of the books do, most of them don't. The writing style is a little stilted, many of the protagonists so flat and boring in the end the world has a more compelling arc than many of the characters. This is hardly surprising, given that this is a series for children, but I feel great children's literature should still be enjoyable for adults. That said, I would never hesitate to recommend these books to those of the intended age. Some may feel that the exploration of dark themes would be too much for young readers, but I vehemently disagree. In many ways, the real world is a cruel and brutal place and we will do our children no favours by hiding this from them. In all, I did still enjoy this series, even if it can't bring me the joy it once did.

P.S. There is a new trilogy, following a protagonist called Cade. I might end it reading it at some point, but I have no desire to do so anytime soon. I feel 'The Immortals' was a fitting end to the series, and a lot of reviews suggest Cade is even more boring than Rook.

[Cheryl Marren · Rating 5 out of 5]

Oh! I just loved this book! The world created here was so detailed and came to life with beautiful clarity. I have often found myself thinking about this book even though I finished it last year. Though I guess it’s aimed at children/YA, I think it might be an ambitious read for many children nowadays, due to its length - but it’s a book that can be enjoyed by any age group because the story is enduring, complex and classic.
I would definitely read more stories from this world. I loved it!

[Tom · Rating 3 out of 5]

I've been a huge fan of this series ever since I read 'Beyond the Deepwoods' years ago. This has been on my shelves for years too - I've put off reading it due to the sheer size (nearly 700 pages) and the fact my copy is hardback - it isn't really the kind of thing you want to carry around in your bag all day.

This is a single volume story instead of the usual trilogy. I'm not sure what the decision was behind that, because in my opinion this reads like a trilogy crammed into a single tome. The story is the usual kind of fare - lowly and mistreated Nate escapes from the phraxmines, picks up a few friends on the way and eventually gets caught up in a war between the Great Glades and the city of Hive, he has to eventually journey to Riverrise to save his friend Eudoxia by obtaining some of the waters of life.

The story isn't terribly thrilling, sure it's enjoyable... but I felt it was lacking depth - too often it jogs along, but we don't get the same feel of more classic earlier volumes from the chronicles, which I felt had more competent and complex plots. This almost reads as if Stewart was just writing it as he went along (which I'm sure he wasn't) but the single volume novel doesn't allow for the slower more gradual introduction of characters and development of plot that a trilogy does. As a result it isn't as satisfying a read. For example, when Nate meets Eudoxia for the second time the narrative jumps and we don't get the detail of how they kindled their friendship and got to know each other. Slightly later this is explained in brief, but I would rather have had a chapter devoted to this. The time jumps between chapters began to really annoy me.

The last section of the book, titled 'The Edge' was where the story really picked up for me, and the plot twist on Sanctaphrax was fantastic - the last few chapters really saved the book for me - even though it was a bit of a convenient tying up of loose ends it did end the series satisfactorily.

Chris Riddell's illustrations are fantastic as usual, he does a great job depicting the intricate characters and architecture of the Edge.

I enjoyed this, but it just didn't have the substance or appeal of earlier novels, and the characters didn't stand out as much as those from earlier books. I'm sure most long term fans would feel similarly.

[Elizabeth · Rating 2 out of 5]

The first thing I thought of when I started reading: Hey, it’s steampunk! This reads very much like a steampunk Edge Chronicles; it takes place 500 years after the Rook trilogy and technology has advanced a lot. Of course, it’s not technically steampunk, but it had a steampunk-feel to it. I guess you could call it…phraxpunk?

I loved all the references to the past and to the three trilogies—characters, events, places, etc. I also liked the fact that this could be a stand-alone book; you don’t have to read the first nine to read this one. Stewart explains it all very well without getting too expository.

The ending of the book was, I think, the best part. The final battle was, if a bit anticlimactic, at least very cool to read, and the final illustration made my mouth drop open (in a good way). It leaves the possibility of (even more) sequels open.

BUT, The Immortals is loooonnnnng. It’s easily three times longer than any other Edge book. It’s about four books in one. And, unfortunately, it really drags in a few places. Time also passes pretty quickly in some parts, which might jolt you a little bit if you’re reading one chapter and then the next takes place six months later.

The title of the book is pretty significant to the plot, but I don’t quite see what the point was. The Immortals show up in two scenes and it’s all very mystical and all I can think is, “What’s the point?” The Immortals seemed to be thrown in there for two reasons: 1.) the connection of the three previous trilogies and 2.) to be a deus ex machina. Sure, it tied together all the trilogies, but all I could think was that Stewart could have done it better.

The Immortals finishes by leaving the Edge a peaceful place at last, but this was also done with Freeglader, and so Freeglader can easily stand as the close of the series. And in my opinion, Freeglader is better.

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[Andrew · Rating 3 out of 5]

It took FOREVER to get interesting. The first two hundred pages are just, well, boring. Otherwise, It was awesome and amazing. I loved that it explained stone sickness. I was starting to wonder if the author would ever tell the reader what caused it. I liked to see Twig, Rook, and Quint back again. It was sad to depart The World of The Edge Chronicles, but the story has to come to an end sometime. But the thing that I liked most about it was how the whole series intertwines with one another, but not enough to make you read in in order (by that I mean that you could pick up the ninth and start reaing it and have a perfect sense of what's going on).

[Laurel · Rating 5 out of 5]

This turned out to be a great book. I started reading it with very high expectations, and I must say I was a little disappointed at first. It seems to me that in The Edge Chronicles the ending is the best part, and in The Immortals it just took too long to get there. But once you do get to it, the end is so spectacular all the critism is hard to remember.

[Pádraic · Rating 3 out of 5]

Simultaneously hurtling the Edge further into the future than ever before, while also being chronically obsessed with its own past; the latter is more to its detriment, I think. That's not to say there isn't plenty here to make even a wizened old Edge Chronicles fan like me sit up a bit and go "oh, holy shit." The zoomed-out maps at the start and end, as well as the drastically changed Great Glade, does that in spades. Five hundred years on from Freeglader, the industrial revolution has hit, the Deepwoods have been charted and settled, and even Riverrise is commodified and corrupted.

All of these changes are fascinating to explore, but the journey through them feels a bit like an Edge Chronicles Greatest Hits. All our faves are here: stuffy academics and scheming business owners; plenty of skyship and skycraft action; getting lost in the Deepwoods with its wondrous/terrifying creatures; banderbears and wig-wigs; huge reality-altering storms; Freeglade Lancers vs goblins; waif assassins and the thornwoods; and female characters more interesting than the protagonist being sidelined. Just like old times. Not to mention, of course, old Sanctaphrax and the motherflipping Gloamglozer, as well as the return of Rook, Twig, and Quint.

This leads back to a complaint I had about Freeglader, when we find out that all the protagonists are related. It renders this wide world, full of weird and wonderful characters and creatures, as just pleasant scenery to the story of this one random family, who, it turns out, over and over again, are actually crucial to the fate of the Edge, assuming basically a mythical status. Particularly given The Immortals goes harder on its class-based commentary than the series has ever previously, I think this sort of, idk, bloodline narrative elitism undermines that a great deal. The appearances of Rook, Twig, and Quint are particularly weak, casting us back when the stronger decision would be to move on without them. Despite what Quint says at the end, their story was over.

I'm being very critical, but this is still a mostly fun time! The extended length (nearly twice any others in the series, I reckon) gives it the feel of an epic saga, where multiple plotlines can be given comfortable resolution, rather than the often breakneck speed at which the earlier books moved. To belabour the metaphor a bit, a greatest hits album of a good band is reliably going to be good, and maybe they tack a couple of new songs on the end as a treat, which might be enough for you, might not. But if you've already heard all the hits, the question becomes how much you want to hear them again, one more time.

[Priyanka · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book took me almost 1.5 months to finish, partly because it feels like the end. I know there’s a new trilogy, and I plan on reading it, but this felt like a bittersweet farewell. We revisited all the places we’ve come to know and love.
The arcs of our beloved main characters Quint, Twig, and Rook, along with the Caterbird, and the terrifying Gloamglozer, are all brought to a close. We finally learn what happened to the floating city of Sanctaphrax. I am so glad the Stewart and Ridell decided to resolve all these trailing plot points.
The new cast of characters were well-written, and it’s sad to see their story end too. I’m still curious about what happens next, as there’s always something new to discover, but it’s hard to say goodbye to all that's come before.
Though this is one book, it’s split into three sections, or ‘books’ of Nate and the first part was incredible. Exploring the third age of flight was so interesting as it's come a long way from sky pirate ships. There was a slight lull during the goblin battles and once the main characters reach Riverrise, but the eerie climax with the Gloamglozers was a true return to form, reminiscent of the Twig Saga.

[Nolan Christensen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great conclusion/setup for sequels to a fantastic series of books.

The story covers a ton, taking everything from the originals and ramping it up to ten; technology has progressed, culture, science, cities- older cities that other books spent tons of time in were decrepit and overgrown, new biomes are forming- it's just a lovely depiction of an ever shifting world.

The protagonist and his journey wasn't particularly compelling to me, but it was exciting enough. The politics and key components of the world were interesting and made sense, and there were tons of callbacks to older characters, events, and plot lines. There are even some special appearances, which was a pleasure.

All in all, solid conclusion to the series- though I just recently found out that there are even more! Will get around to them someday, but as it is, this has been an awesome journey.

Wholeheartedly recommend the Edge Chronicles to anybody who wants a fun read full of adventure.

[Kie Lancaster · Rating 5 out of 5]

God this series and this book are amazing. Paul Stewart completes the Edge chronicles in a way that is both novel and nostalgic and had me amazed and smiling at its conclusion. I have always been a huge fan of how Stewart weaves elements of previous stories into the current plot and I was not disappointed here. I recommend the Edge chronicles to anyone and everyone. Also, if I were to go blind I would want the last images I saw to be the illustrations of Chris Riddell. Intricately detailed and stunning to look at, Riddell’s pictures leap straight off of the page. I will remember this book for a long time.

[Lydia · Rating 3 out of 5]

Was skeptical, but manages to be a fairly decent wrapup to this series I read for the first time so long ago. The original 9 books did leave some unsatisfactory dangling threads. The weaknesses of the series are still present here (barely notable female characters and everyone is related for some goddamned reason), but I'm willing to overlook it in a middle-grade fantasy series (tho I would hope any girls reading have more exposure to other things). Also, the gorgeous, grotesque, detailed illustrations have always been my favorite part of these and this entry doesn't disappoint in that regard.

[Sandy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Even more full of creatures and characters and baddies than you could imagine!
Page after page Nate manages to get to almost every place he could go over the whole edge...while being pretty much a main player in each incident. I ended up putting bookmarks in each map so I could flip back and forth between reading about locations within towns and cities to know where they were going.
It is a big book (heavy!) and spent a lot of time on my shelf before I decided I had enough time to read it. It was worth it.

[Ethan. C · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love The Immortals like I love all the Edge chronicles, for there Amazing Illustration, Cool outbuilding, fun characters, and innovative plots. I would recommend this book to anyone who has read all of the other the edge chronicles before reading this one as you would be spoiled ridiculously. Or as a flip side I would recommend this to anyone who has never heard of the edge chronicles then read the other books latter.

[Savannah · Rating 5 out of 5]

I didn't think anything could dethrone "Midnight Over Sanctaphrax" as my favorite Edge Chronicles book, but "The Immortals" has! It was simply exquisite. Centuries after Quint, Twig, and Rook's adventures, the Edge has changed so much yet remained the adventure-filled place I fell in love with all those years ago. It was a blast reading this, a tale where the story of the Edge and the Verginix line comes full-circle. I would rate it 100 stars if I could!

[Sara Carmona · Rating 5 out of 5]

In my opinion, this is the best book in the entire series! It ties together all the major events that happened in each saga and provides a well rounded resolution that makes you wonder what's next. The illustrations have so much character, and the writing is stunning, with intricately detailed descriptions of every aspect of the edgelands. Phenomenal! I look forward to visiting the edgelands again!

[Sanja_Sanjalica · Rating 5 out of 5]

Suspenseful and surprising, too violent at times, but really engaging. It gives conclusion to some story threads (not surprising, since this was supposed to be the end of the series). A really good one from the series after a few mediocre ones. A bit longish, but full of wonderful (and sometimes awful) things. Can't wait to start the last trilogy. A great ending.

[Bryan Jenks · Rating 5 out of 5]

A great conclusion and tie into all of the books that came before it. A great use of prior characters that really makes the story feel like a fully immersive universe tying elements into it from across the entire series even back to the beginning. Off to the last 3 books, this series has been a wonderful and amazing ride.

[Steven Davis · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another excellent work from the phantastically gifted Stewart & Riddell, whose imagination and illustrations never fails to please. If only more fantasy was this out of the box and less of the jaded elves/ dwarves/ orcs etc with no inventiveness. On a reading of this, I found it surprisingly (and pleasingly) dark.

[Justin Flaherty · Rating 5 out of 5]

Re-reading for the first time since I was a kid, and man does it stand up still. The magic of the world and the previous stories is really well brought together in this book (I just wish it was longer). It’s cool to read much more into the books narrative on what a whimsical world would look like as it undergoes a sort of Industrial Revolution and rapid expansion that in turn leads to war.

[Luke Nyul · Rating 4 out of 5]

A strong conclusion to what was going to be the final book in the Edge Chronicles series! It had all the making of a finale and told the story of Nate over a single tale which felt cinematic from start to end! Excellent stuff and I look forward to beginning the final trilogy of this brilliant series!

[Jameson Rivera · Rating 5 out of 5]

read this for the first time when I was 12 and now again at 21... this book and series for sure had a formative impact on my creative style and it's so much more complex and lovely than I could've appreciated back then. I'm just glad it exists I think

[Claudia Smith · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love the world, plot and side characters, bur my only complaint is that the main characters are getting really samey

[Caitlyn · Rating 5 out of 5]

I had my issues with this book, but at the end of the day I find myself incapable of giving any book in this series anything less than five stars.

[Noah Van · Rating 5 out of 5]

YES! This book ties together to every book in the series. Everything comes to together like a quilt.
Exciting and adventurous. I loved it

[Noxwitchbooklife · Rating 5 out of 5]

A dramatic installment in the Edge Chronicles I did not see the ending coming in true Edge style!