I Just Read About That…

[LISTENED TO: August 2017] The Diamond of Darkhold

The end of the previous book (the prequel) left me in very good spirits about this final book.  This one had not come out while I was working at the public library so I didn’t know about it and the title and cover puzzled me.

But whatever, it was time to see how this series ended (I assume its over).

But, oh no!  Another new audio book reader!  This time Katherine Kellgren.  Kellgren has the unenviable task of following up Wendy Dillon’s establishment as a reader.  It was a little disconcerting hearing Doon and some other characters who had very distinctive voices portrayed differently.  In fact, I wasn’t all that impressed by her reading at first because the characters kind of sounded the same.  But as soon as new characters entered the picture I was really thrilled with her reading.  The diverse voices she brought to the story were outstanding.

So what happens in it?

The story picks up about nine months after the Emberites left Ember.  Winter is coming upon them and things are very hard.  People are also getting sick (some people have died). 

The beginning of the book tells us that the Builders (the people who created Ember), wanted the citizens to have some kind of useful item when they came out from underground.  So they put something in a sealed room and added a book which explained how it worked.  It was placed right near the exit and was expected to open right around when the Emberites were supposed to emerge.

It opened as expected, but there was no one to receive it.  And then at some point a roamer discovered the item and the book. Of course the roamer couldn’t read so she used it for starting fires (when I heard this I audibly groaned).

This roamer came to Sparks and tried to sell some of her wares.  Sparks had very little to offer her, which rather upset her.  But then Doon saw the book and he really wanted it.  So Lina traded a precious match for it.

After some time, Doon told Lina about the book.  It was instructions for something but he couldn’t tell what (there were only 8 pages left in the book) but the cover said that it was for the citizens of Ember.  Doon knew that it was something important.

The roamer was kind of a jerk and wouldn’t tell them where she found the book.  Then she left.

Doon was obsessed with the information in it and told Lina that he wanted to go back to Ember to see if he could find whatever this thing was (there were only some clues as to what it might actually be).  He knew they could make the journey in a day if they walked fast.  So she agreed.  They grabbed some things and set off.

They found a way into Ember (not the way they exited).  And began walking around their old home.  I always wondered….if the flowed out of the city, mustn’t it flow into the city somewhere else?  Wasn’t that another way in?

I imagined that this would turn into a really interesting story about discovery and reminiscing and seeing what their old home was like, maybe encountering some difficulties along the way.  But DuPrau had other things in mind.

For in Ember was a family, the The Troggs (Washton, Kanza, Minny, Yorick and an adopted boy called Scawgo–later they explain where these ridiculous names came from–they were Trogg’s understanding of former US cities–Minny is short for “Mini Apples,” Yorick is “New Yorickk,” Kanza is Kansas and it took me ages to figure out was Scawgo was supposed to be.  I think in part it’s because Kellgren read it more as Scargo, but in seeing it in print now, I gather it is Chicago).  And they are not happy about trespassers in their city, now known as Darkhold.

They capture Doon, but not Lina.  And soon our heroes are separated–Lina returning home to get help for Doon and Doon stuck in a darkened Ember, with ankle cuffs on and a mean family bossing him around while they loot his old home.  The Troggs are an interesting family and I loved the way Kellgren voiced them.  Especially the kids, Yorick and Kanza are horrible little bratty urchins and their voices are perfect.  Minny is a flighty, nervous person scared of her own shadow and of Washton.  And Washton is played wonderfully. He is a fascinating character–a know-it-all who is quite clever but is also very stupid.  He was cleverly trying to name his children after ancient cities but he got them all wrong.  He figured out how to get into the city and make the most use of it, but he was also a looter and a bully.  He adopted Scawgo when bandits killed his parents, but he also treats the boy like a servant.

My favorite cleverness from Washton is that Ember’s generator is basically dying, but every once in a while it surges to life for a short time and generates a brief amount of power.  So the Troggs opened all the water taps and plugged the drains.  Every time the generator surges, tubs and sinks fill with water.   Pretty clever.

But I really enjoyed the way the book summed up Doon’s attitude:

Trogg had a knack for figuring things out, Doon had to admit it.  And yet he did not see Trogg as  truly intelligent person.  Trogg seemed to think he knew everything, but strangely enough, it was exactly this that made him seem stupid to Doon.  A person who thought he knew everything simply didn’t understand how much there was to know.

This is true in literally every facet of life.

Trogg also can’t resist showing off, so whole he has Doon captive he reveals the titular diamond.  He knows it is valuable (but he doesn’t realize that it can do anything) and figures that someday people would trade for it.  Doon decides that this diamond is what the destroyed book was talking about.  And he feels that it is rightfully Ember’s diamond.  So he plans to take it back.  As soon as he can escape.

As Lina heads back home, she runs into the roamer who visited Sparks.  She proves to be far nicer this time and is actually a generous person.  She helps Lina out but she won;t take her all the way back to Sparks (she’s not THAT nice).

Meanwhile, back home, Kenny, Lizzie (who we hadn’t seen much) and horrible Torren (who doesn’t seem quite as horrible because Kellgren’s voice for him isn’t as grating as Dillon’s was) hatch a plan to go rescue Lina and Doon, who they figure have gone back to Ember.

Okay so two questions:

1. Why did nobody in Ember ever think “hey we left tons of food down there, maybe we should go get it?”  It can’t be that hard to get in there, and we are starving after all.
2. Why do all of these kids go out and do things without telling anyone.  I understand that adults are authority figures and they say no to everything.  And that these are kids books, but still.  There must be some sympathetic adult ear.

So the middle of the book involves Lina’s attempts to rescue Doon, Doon’s attempts to figure what he can do to escape (and how to best use the supplies from Ember, and the other threesome’s attempts to track down Lina and Doon).  I loved when Doon got out of the shackles and roamed Ember in the dark, that was great.

It’s hard to say much more without giving away spoilers.  Suffice it to say that there is a return to Ember, and they do eventually find a use for the item in the room.

But the story doesn’t really end there.  Rather, it flashes forward and makes some wonderful ties to other things in the previous books.

I found the “souvenirs” that Doon and Lina get from Ember to be very touching and I liked how they showed the past and the future.  I was also really pleased at the way the Troggs got a sort of comeuppanace, the kind befitting people who are bad nut not terrible.

And I was very intrigued by the “moving star” in the story.  The roamers always talked about a “moving star” in the sky, one that would not stay fixed like all the others.  I assumed it was a satellite from the Builder but it wasn’t.  And the way the DuPrau tied this to another part of the story was wonderful.

I felt the ending was quite satisfying.  I also liked how Lina and Doon found some fairy tale books and while they knew that “happily ever after” wasn’t really possible, it was something to strive for.

This proved to be a frustrating but ultimately enjoyable series.  And even if the messages in the story were kind of blunt (war is bad, generosity is good, courage is hard), they are important messages, ones that many people today seem to have forgotten.