StarChaser (TodHunter Moon #3)

Sage, Angie. StarChaser (TodHunter Moon #3)
October 11th 2016 by Katherine Tegen Books
ARC provided by Young Adult Books Central

When Septimus' brother Simon's lapis lazuli eye starts to crumble to dust, it bodes ill for many things in the kingdom that depend on it. In order to get things back to the way they were, an ormlet being raised by Spit Fyre must be returned to the Orme Pit and hopefully an Ormlet egg can be found to bury under the castle and restore the magic. Tod and her friends embark on a variety of adventures to accomplish this, and have run ins with the Red Queen, who is greatly desirous of a castle of her own.

Sage creates a very rich, medieval fantasy world with its own spells, creatures and terminology. Readers who like to memorize the details of fantasy series will definitely enjoy seeing Tod solve problems using magic charms potions. Seeing Septimus as her teacher is great fun for those who know his adventures for the Magyk series. 

There are also lots of cozy houses with good food, deliciously evil villains with malevolent plans that Tod manages to thwart, and adventures in a vividly detailed fantasy world. There is a map at the beginning of the book showing Tod's world. 

The various characters are lots of fun as well-- Oskar, wtih his devotion to the Orme, Marissa with her evil machinations, Driffa, who is trying to restore her own kingdom, and Jo-Jo who risks everything to save the kingdom for Kraan. Hand this to readers who know the rules of Quidditch backwards and forwards, who are studying Elvish via Tolkien, or who can outline all the characters and their abilities from Prineas' The Magic Thief. 

This was one of those fantasy books that don't go over well with me personally. The fact that many of the words were bold faced in a different type(UnRaveling, Magykal, Sprites, KeyStone-- on one page!) just irritated me. I found this hard to follow because there were so many characters, although that probably means that it was a good wrap-up to a lengthy series. Plus, I got the dog trimmed, laundry folded, and the dining room table cleaned off while I read this because all of those things seemed like a better idea than finding out if the Ormlet gets sent to the Orme Pit. Will it sit in an Orme Chair? Say it out loud. Sigh.