Burn

October 21, 2013
Baggott finishes her Pure trilogy (Pure; Fuse) unevenly, with the generally phenomenal worldbuilding subsumed by a largely predictable and straightforward conclusion. “Pures” live in the Dome, which protects them from a harsh postapocalyptic environment in which “Wretches” are often fused with objects. Young Pure Partridge has taken over leadership of the Dome after killing his father, while his sister, Pressia, works with Bradwell, El Capitan, and Helmud to discover a cure for the fusing. There’s some good stuff early, as Partridge deals with a rebellion and the implications of his newfound knowledge that the Pures are unlikely to survive, but the inevitable trip back by Pressia and her friends is too often tension-free, even when they attempt to rescue their old ally Hastings from monstrous Dusts. Interesting philosophical issues are obscured by predictably heroic casualties and leaden action scenes. There’s still enough meat to at least bring the story to a satisfying ending for longtime readers, but the routine wrap-up undercuts Baggott’s previous vision.

January 1, 2014
Fantasist Baggott (Fuse, 2013, etc.) wraps up her post-apocalyptic Pure Trilogy with an installment that will leave fans wanting more. Baggott is a worldbuilder; she imagines settings on a grand scale, and it's not pretty. It's a time after the Detonations, when the One Percenters--well, the well-connected, anyway--get to live under the safety of the Dome while the rest get to live in something that resembles Bartertown in that Mad Max film, save that there are melting faces and nuclear sickness to attend to on top of resource shortages. Inside the Dome lives Partridge, who, part of the resistance to the new order, now finds himself in charge. (There's a neat element of Greek tragedy in that development.) Is he going to continue the Purist apartheid? Once the new boss takes his seat, natch, it's tempting to take up where the old boss left off. Meanwhile, quickly growing up outside is Pressia, a tough and resourceful young woman who, at the head of an interestingly motley band of fighters, is now stuck with a vexing question: Can she trust Partridge to live up to his ideals, or does she have to fight him too? Baggott blends the fantastic with plausible science--not just on the nasty effects of radiation, but also on the mechanics of gene splicing (in this case, to create a herd of attack boars, "engineered to be domesticated like cattle but vicious too"). It's a hallmark of good fantasy writing that all the elements of the imagined world are at once believable and not quite like the world in which we live, and Baggott eminently succeeds. She also writes arrestingly, and if her story drags a little as she ties together the many loose ends, it's worth the longueurs to find sentences such as these: "Pressia steps in through what was once the doorway, her boots crunching the broken glass. Its roof is gone, like a gaping maw over her head. The floor shines with dark puddles of rain." It's no place for a picnic, but we'll hope that Baggott moves on to making another world just as engaging as this one.

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December 15, 2013
Partridge has murdered his evil father, Willux, and assumed control of the Dome, his goal to effect a rapprochement between the Pures, who live in the Dome, and the Wretches, who are survivors of the Detonations and whom the Pures regard as no longer human. Meanwhile, Pressia, Bradwell, and El Capitan are attempting to reach the domed city with conflicting missions: Pressia plans to deliver a medication and its formula that might cure the Wretches, who are badly mutilated, fused to whatever object they happened to be near when the Detonations occurred (El Capitan and his brother Helmud are fused); as for El Capitan and Bradwell, they plan to destroy the Dome even if it means revolution. To complicate matters, both El Capitan and Bradwell are in love with Pressia; how will this affect their missions? Baggott's conclusion to her monumental Pure trilogy about a postapocalyptic, strife-torn world is hardly original, but it's effective in its dramatic, occasionally suspenseful treatment of its subject and in its charismatic characters. Readers should be aware, however, that this is not a stand-alone title; to understand its complexities, it's necessary to have read the preceding two volumes.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2013, American Library Association.)

September 1, 2013

In Baggott's scarily beautiful Pure, those not under the Dome at the moment of the blinding Detonations were permanently fused to whatever was nearby, object or human, and Partridge defied his father, Dome master Willux, by escaping. In Fuse, Willux used threats to lure back Partridge, who leaves behind friends Pressia and Bradwell. Here, Partridge replaces his father but starts having doubts about bringing down the Dome, while Pressia and Bradwell seek ways to correct the fusings. The trilogy is set for film; the gorgeous writing beats The Hunger Games.

Copyright 2013 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

January 1, 2014

Pures and Wretches continue to battle for the fate of a devastated world in the final volume in Baggott's trilogy (Pure; Fuse). After the death of his father, Partridge has taken over leadership within the dome where those unaffected by the Detonations lead their privileged lives. But his desire to tear down the lies the Pures have been told means facing off against all those who want to use him as a political puppet. Outside the dome, estranged lovers Pressia and Bradwell race to bring a cure to those fused and mutilated Wretches and bring down the dome. But the couple aren't sure they can still trust Partridge to help them. VERDICT This series conclusion is even darker than usual for dystopian sf, with the agonies of misplaced affections and misunderstood love on top of the grim story line, but those invested in Baggott's characters will want to see how the trilogy ends. [See Prepub Alert, 8/12/13.]

Copyright 2014 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.