In my second read of Faith Erin Hicks’ ATLA books, I was once again impressed with the dialogue & her ability to put the characters’ voices into her prose.
As for the story, it was hit or miss with many more hits than misses. Suki was well-represented. It’s been a few years since I’ve read the first five entries, but I don’t remember much of her in them. The overarching story was very good! The idea of benders & non-benders having issues would make so much sense in that political climate. The one glaring weakness, however was the villain. Her motives were paper thin & it seemed like she just wanted to do bad things because she wanted to do bad things. I wasn’t really feeling that. Maybe I’m just spoiled by Zuko’s incredible motives in the greatest redemption arc in the history of visual media, but It’s the reason the book lost a star.
The art was once again incredible! Along with the dialogue, it really felt like I was watching the show again. The colorist changing between books threw me off a little. Both were great, but the entire family changing hair colors was jarring. (Although the change was good. Redheads from the earth nation didn’t make very much sense.)
Overall, I enjoyed the book & I’ll be excited to reread the whole series after one of my annual rewatched sometime!