Today, I finished Ridley Pearson's latest novel, Shell Game, aka Kingdom Keepers V. It occurs to me I never reviewed Kingdom Keepers IV, Power play. I shall revise that now, by reviewing both books.
Power Play: With Maleficent and Chernabog in prison, things are finally returning to normal for the Keepers. The Keepers are just settling in, Philby gets a video call form Wayne, telling him that the Overtakers are regrouping and planning a jailbreak for their leaders. It's up to the Keepers to stop them.
The stakes are higher now: some Overtakers are DHIs now. They have control of which Keepers cross over or not. Worse, they have started casting spells on children, and they follow their every whim. Paranoia sets in as the Keepers no longer know who to trust, when the OTs are going to attempt their jailbreak, or how.
New Overtakers introduced are Cruella de Vil, the Huns, Jafar the Evil Queen from Snow White, and Judge Frollo.
The Keepers come to realize that the good Disney characters are forming an army to fight with the Keepers. They are missing their leader: Mickey, who disappeared not long before they started tearing down Toontown. The OTs are expanding onto the cruise ships just as the DHIs are, in two weeks.
This book is easily my favorite, or second favorite in the series. It explains a lot about how the DHI technology works.
Shell Game: The Keepers are trading off patrol of the Disney maintenance base in Disney's Hollywood Studios to fend of OT attacks.One night, Willa and Finn witness Maleficent, Cruella and the Evil Queen steal an old journal of Walt's, mostly about Chernabog.
Finn has a vision, much like Jess's. he is in a factory, then reaches the roof of the building and jumps off with Willa, dropping the Return, or what he assumes is the Return. He is scared of what this might mean.
During the duration of the book, we gain two unexpected allies and one unexpected enemy. King Triton is willing to assist the Keepers while they are at sea. As for the enemy, well, think of the Overtaker children as OTKs. What if there was an OTP/OTA??
There are several rumors floating on the boat: the Keepers will be replaced with younger kids after the 2.0 beta test, the OT server is on the ship, as will as OTKs as DHIS. Are any of them true? Along with recovering Walt's journal, Finn's mission is to find out.
New OTs introduced are Tia Dalma, Hyenas from The Lion King, and Ursula
I didn't like the ending very much. It's a cliffhanger. Overall, this was a good book though.
I have very few problems with this series. Pearson's main problem is with continuity, or lack thereof. In KKI, Maybeck declared he was a catholic. In KKIII or KKIV, Maybeck said "I don't really do churches." In KKI, Finn was an only child, as far as we can tell. In KKII and beyond, he has a little sister. In KKI, Jezebel turns back to Jess, but is called Jezebel again in KKII, revised in the following books. In KKIII, Stitch was an OT, no question. In KKV, Stitch helps Finn escape a variation of CTDs, without any mention of his previous OT status.
These aren't important plot points, but annoying in-continuities nonetheless. I hope that KKVI comes out sooner than a year!
