Let me start by saying the title is a little misleading. I do have something nice say for each of these books. But just one thing. I could probably think of more, but as a whole I found these to be lackluster reads. I’m definitely not going to put in the effort of giving each a full review.

The books in question are Alcatraz Versus the Evil Librarians, by Brandon Sanderson, A Map of Days, by Ransom Riggs, and Outlaw: Champions of Kamigawa, by Scott McGough.

I feel that I should give reasons for why I read these particular books. For the Sanderson one, I’ve liked everything Sanderson. Until now. For the Riggs one, I’ve read the three prior Miss Peregrine’s books and have enjoyed them. But the arc ended with book three. This was the start of something new. And the McGough one, I’ve played Magic The Gathering since middle school, and recently decided to read all of the novelizations of the sets.

Each of these books is in a series. I don’t intend to read additional Alcatraz or Miss Peregrine. I will read more of the Magic books, because they change authors, characters, worlds, etc. That, and nostalgia goes a long way in relation to entertainment. Why do you think Ready Player One was so successful?

But, the one good thing about each:

Alcatraz Versus the Evil Librarians: The magic system is super neat, which is no surprise coming from Brandon Sanderson. I want to know more about how it works. Unfortunately, I actively don’t want to deal with Alcatraz so much that it overshadows the magic.

A Map of Days: We got glimpses into a bunch of new time periods and settings, and their relation to the present day of the story was interesting.

Outlaw: Champions of Kamigawa: The description of how spell-casting and various magics worked was neat, especially knowing the cards those spells are based on, especially in conjunction with the characters wielding them, coming to life as opposed to a picture on a piece of cardboard.

And I’ll leave it at that. Hopefully I won’t have too many more of these posts, but unfortunately not all books can go the distance.