Booklog 43/26: Rosalind Tate: Endgame - Shorten Chronicles #6 – Audiobook

[jacey]

Audiobook narrated by Katy Sobey.

Sophie, Freddie, Hugo and Charlotte (the enhanced Labradoodle) return to a version of their own world to regroup and work out what to do next. It's not quite the universe they left, however. Sophie discovers that her parents are still alive in this version of reality. They head to Victorian England to steal the walking stick/control device from H.G. Wells who in this universe is not murderous. Unfortunately Miss Hattie Wells has arrived from another universe, courtesy of Janus, and she's a professional assassin, though one with a bit more brain than previous iterations of Wells. They spend most of the book in the Victorian period with one of Freddie's aunts (who,of course doesn't know him yet, but accepts him anyway.

This is the final book in the Shorten Chronicles, so I feel a comment on the whole six book set is in order/ It started well, the fist three books were interesting and kept me listening. The last three books, however, seemed to draw the story out too far. The whole story in books four, five, and six could have been wrapped up in one, condensing the too-long visit to Rome and the extended visit to Victorian London into shorter and more succinct episodes. The writing was smooth, and the narration excellent, but the length of the plot didn't support its content. Having said that, it was easy listening and not unenjoyable.