Cybermage

August 1, 2009
Gr 7 Up-The conclusion of this trilogy finds Thea back at the Wandless Academy for a new school year, where she discovers that her friends have grown apart over the summer. Fortunately for Thea, the Federal Bureau of Magic once again needs help, and she and her friends are called on to open a mysterious elemental cube. The cube turns out to contain Nikola Tesla who, in the world of Worldweavers, is the only elemental mage in history able to control all four elements. Thea is also declared an elemental mage, though her powers still appear to be primarily over computers. This change in her status appears to be an authorial device to put her and Tesla on equal footing. An overly complex plot to help Tesla regain his powers and release him from the cube makes the story slow going. In fact, the world building is ever-so-slightly off pitch. New technologies, characters' abilities, and magics are created seemingly at the whim of the author and don't feel the least bit organic. Sadly, the relationships among the teen characters, which were critical to the appeal of the series, have fallen by the wayside here. The ending is oddly open-ended and lacks the typical closure found in final installments."Kristin Anderson, Columbus Metropolitan Library System, OH"

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