Day of Doom: 05/06/15

Day of Doom by David Baldacci is the disappointing conclusion to the Cahills vs. Vespers series. Why he was brought on write the ending is a mystery to me.

At the start of the 39 Clues, there was an educational aspect to the books. Despite the silliness of all these competing teams and the online interactive bits for diehard readers, there was some actual history, culture, and geography thrown in. The educational aspects fell to the wayside in this second series and by the end, any actual grip on reality is completely lost.

At the end of Trust No One by Linda Sue Park, the siblings realize they have been gathering the pieces of a doomsday device designed by Archimedes. A magical version of this thing appears in Mark of Athena and The House of Hades (reviews coming) both by Rick Riordan. So maybe I should be making the sink eye at him too.

Most of this book is the final race across the country to rescue the prisoners and turn off the doomsday device before it can be completely activated. This device has the following non-sensical effects: strange weather, plans unable to fly (due to reversed polarity) and a massive subduction zone generated earthquake (and land tsunami)! But — but — but — the subduction zone is in the Rocky Mountains — in an Amtrak tunnel. Colorado doesn't have a subduction zone (as there is no plate diving beneath another). What it does have is an extensive aquifer network.

There are so many things wrong with the premise that I just would need about a month's worth of posts to outline why this book is just so wrong. And it's not a fun wrong. It's a frustrating, book-tossing-worthy wrong. It's extra-special wrong because it doesn't fit the personality of the previous books, even remotely.

But let's take a deep breath and set the doomsday device aside to look at the the Vesper organization. All the way through we've been told that no one knows who Vesper One is because everyone goes by a number only. As anyone with the right credentials can be recruited, there's no obvious guarantee as to who is the top Vesper. So with that set up, who ends up being Vesper One — yup — a dude with the last name Vesper.

I want a do over.

One star

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