A FALLEN CITY WHERE TERRIBLE SECRETS ARE REVEALED...
Emily and her friends think they'll find the help they need in Cielis, but something isn't right. Streets that were once busy are deserted, and the townspeople who are left live in fear. Emily is soon escorted to the Academy, where she's expected to compete for a spot on the Guardian Council, a group of the most powerful Stonekeepers. But as the number of competitors gets smaller and smaller, an awful secret is slowly uncovered—a secret that, if left buried, means the certain destruction of everything Emily fights for.
Kazu Kibuishi (born 1978) is an American graphic novel author and illustrator. He is best known for being the creator and editor of the comic anthology Flight and for creating the webcomic Copper. He has also written (drawn) the Amulet series. The webcomic artist and noted critic Scott McCloud has said that some of Kazu Kibuishi's work is so beautifully drawn that "it hurts my hands when I look at it".
As much as I love the Amulet series, my affection pales in comparison to my fourth grade readers. Never has their been a series that they love as much as they love Amulet. Both boy and girl readers are captivated by the work of Kazu Kibuishi.
I have enjoyed all of the books in the Amulet series, with the first book being my favorite. In my opinion Kazu takes it to the next level with book four. The plot is well developed, the characters are taken to a deeper level, the architecture in Cielis is amazing, and the message is powerful.
Take you time reading this one. Be sure to appreciate the beauty of this book.
THIS WAS EXCELLENT. AMAZING. MARVELOUS. OUTSTANDING. WONDERFUL. EXCEPTIONAL. And I say this for absolutely everything: characters, the plot, the twist, tHE ART (!!!) - everything.
It keeps getting better and better. I enjoyed book 4 more than the previous ones. The art, Fabulous as always; and I still believe that the mom adds nothing to the series she needs to leave; other than that brilliant. Can't wait to see what will happen next.
When you begin to realize the true weight of your actions, you will awaken to become the person this world needs you to be.
Emily, Navin, their mother and other friends all make it to the lost city of Cielis. They are keen on asking help from the council but strange things are afoot. Not everything is what it seems to be.
Emily has to go through the trials to be on the council and Leon finds a mysterious stranger helping them. Miskit also finds someone who becomes an ally.
I have been enjoying this series a lot. Some things are quite predicable but still it is quite interesting, mysterious, somewhat dark, completely action-packed and the art is amazing. I am loving where the story is going.
This series keeps getting better and better here. The Lost city of Cialis is not he safe haven we were hoping for. There are zombies in this one and the whole city is being jailed - talk about big brother.
We meet another stone keeper, several actually. Miskit and the other robot come back into the story.
Emily is put through a trial she isn't really interested in. She is trying to figure out how to be helpful and so far she simply has more questions.
The art continues to be fantastic. I enjoy this story and I will continue on with it.
4.5** While this book was also great, it’s been my least favourite so far. Maybe its because I don’t really remember the series after book 3, but it wasn’t anything special compared to the first three books. Even though the twist was kinda obvious, I was still a bit shocked. I think because I forgot what happened in this one 😭 But either way, it was still super entertaining and we got introduced to many new characters as well as loads more info on the guardian council.
Quite predictable and cheesy, but still a fun enough read. The artwork, the world and the secondary characters were as great as usual.
Still didn't like Emily much, she was so bland and vanilla and always had the same attitude and facial expressions, not to mention the same power struggle/amulet issues as the previous three volumes. She was just dull and stagnant, her dialogue was blah and her actions were generic. The story would have been much better if one of the secondary characters took over from boring Emily.
I didn't care for this volume as much as the others. It feels a little more sci-fi and that just wasn't what I was looking for in this series. Still, not bad, but maybe the weaker link of the series.
Book # 4 in the Amulet graphic novel series has Emily hoping to join the Guardian Council, a group of the most powerful stonekeepers. But she has to endure several challenges to prove herself worthy, and in order to succeed she needs to find a way to trust others. The key is trusting the correct source / entity.
She finds that she has her own strengths, and that she has both allies and enemies where she didn’t expect them.
Kibuishi continues with his extraordinary illustrations. The fight scenes are particularly effective, but I enjoyed the few humorous moments more.
The art was beautiful and seemed more worked on than in the previous books. Perhaps because there were more human characters? And I really liked the cutie Dagno of course. Who wouldn't?
But in general this book really didn't feel like it belonged, it was a bit more on the techy, sci-fi side than magic. At least it felt like it. And I just felt like nothing really surprised me about it, despite there being plenty of material for surprises.
Hmm, this series started off strong but this volume is just a mish-mash of YA/Sci-Fi/Fantasy tropes. It's got Hunger Games (with young people in a battle royale type situation), Star Wars (with the two robot/droids going off on their own adventure), LOTR (with a "mother stone"... one stone to rule them all style thing). Plus we get a cute baby dragon following our robot characters now. It's just too many things all at once and it doesn't add up to much more than a fun adventure.
I adore the full page splashes. The colors are wonderful.
I'm not too excited to see where this goes next. My niece is still reading Volume 5, she's a bit bored with the series as well, so it may be awhile before I read on.
Still, I would recommend this series for youngsters! I wish my school library had stuff like this when I was a kid. My comic related choices were limited to Captain Underpants and French volumes of Tintin. Perhaps a Garfield collection or two. It's really cool to have these long narrative comics, and I'm sure a kid doesn't mind how transparent the influences are to an older reader.
Wasn't sure how this one was going to go but then it got a little THG up in here and things got awesome! Another fantastic installment in this adventure packed series :)
Emily and her friends find themselves in a new, strange land--the city of Cieles. It's a city rife with mystery. It's got the trope-y rulers who have mysteriously changed their ways for the worse. But it's also got some sort of disease or virus that's causing the citizens to trust no one. And then it's got these powerful people that seem to be controlled as if they're the puppets of some evil mastermind.
It all sounds great, but unfortunately it just comes off as mysterious for no reason. The story doesn't really shine any light on the mystery, assign any meaning to it. It just introduces it and sort of moves on. So while it keeps you interested, the ending feels unsatisfying. It feels like the intrigue of this new city only exists to distract the reader from how much magic this issue is missing when compared to the ones prior.
For a series so incredibly imaginative, this issue feels decidedly bland. Even still, the ending left me hopeful that all these new threads would come together in the future. I was left optimistic about the issues to come. And I definitely plan to read the next issue.
I have no words for how good this was, I loved this so much. The ending was insane, I did figure out the plot twist but man, Ronin and the others deserved better 😩😭. This was such a great graphic novel. (5 stars ⭐️)
WHATTTT!!! I devour THIS BOOK!! Fear, deceit, control and WHAT!! Kill like The Hunger Games!! I said it KILL ok well turn them into STONE but shoot it's still no life in the body. What ppl will do to get the Stone and control the Council. Hmmm... Anything!! Yep that sums it for me. Sad I have to wait for the next one. For the last 2 days...I'm calling libraries like I lost my little marbles.. anyway it will be here when I get back.
Do I feel like I'm cheating at my Reading Challenge by reading a kids book? Maybe. Am I regretting it? Hell no.
I just can't get over the damn artwork. I love everything about it! The worldbuilding is just getting better with every series, the writing is just amazing.
It's a fast-paced read and I'm thoroughly enjoying it.
I highly recommend this series to everyone, regardless of age.
"When you begin to realise the true weight of your actions you will awaken to become the person this world needs you to be" So involving and transporting you wouldn't even know you reached the end. Awesome!