Stargazer by: Patrick Carman

Stargazer
The Land of Elyon Book 4
Patrick Carman
Scholastic
ISBN 9780439899512

This is book four in the Land of Elyon trilogy. At the end of Into The Mist we leave Yipes, Roland and Alexa heading towards the five pillars community hidden out in the sea. Yet a great evil, defeated once, has followed them and desires to make this place its new home and its dominion. Abaddon is this great evil, and is full of a vehement hatred because of his defeat and the new form he has been forced to take. Abaddon has taken a form much like a great octopus, with scales of iron and enough spite to want to destroy the whole world. Stargazer begins right where Into the Mist leaves off. The book opens with the destruction of the Warwick Beacon, with Captain Roland Warvold going down with the ship.

Alexa must face a world without the guidance and protection previously provided by the Brothers Warvold. She is in a strange place, where the rules and customs are unknown to her. Yet it is also a place of great adventure. Five stone pillars rise up out of the sea; the community living there resides on the first three. The first and shortest is for crops, the second has a freshwater lake on most of the surface, and the third is concave and has the most homes. The fourth is convex and is uninhabited, and finally, the fifth towers into the sky and the top is not known or visible to the inhabitants of the islands. They make their way from pillar to pillar by a series of rope bridges and slide down natural vines like zip-lines. And as much as Alexa would like to just explore this new place, Abaddon has informed her that he plans to destroy it, or make it his own. He is slowly eroding the fourth tower by tearing chucks from the stone, as it is the narrowest. They fear that it will topple into the third and cause a cascade effect.

Alexa is once again thrust into the middle of a great adventure, but an adventure filled with the unknown and with mystery. She must find a way to save this new place she has just discovered. For the first time, she must do great things with only the help of Yipes, her friend small in stature but great in heart and will. But the lord of Elyon has even more in store for her than she can imagine. As she proceeds to try to discover a way out of this situation, she begins to see her own life path and purpose.

Patrick Carman has been nominated for numerous book awards for this series, including winning the 2007 Lamplighter Award and the Cochecho Readers Award 2005-2006. This book lives up to that heritage or even exceeds it. So give the book a try - it is strong enough to read alone, but is also part of a great series.

Other of Patrick Carman Books:

The Dark Hills Divide - The Land of Elyon Book 1
Beyond the Valley of Thorns - The Land of Elyon Book 2
The Tenth City - The Land of Elyon Book 3
Into The Mist - The Land of Elyon Prequel
Stargazer - The Land of Elyon Book 4

The House of Power - Atherton Book 1
Rivers of Fire - Atherton, Book 2
The Dark Planet - Atherron Book 3

Saving Mr Nibbles - Elliot's Park Book 1
Haunted Hike - Elliot's Park Book 2
The Walnut Cup - Elliot's Park Book 3
A Windy Tale - Elliot's Park Book 4

Skeleton Creek - Skeleton Creek Book 1 - A Prereview.
Ghost in the Machine - Skeleton Creek Book 2
Crossbones - Skeleton Creek Book 3
The Raven - Skeleton Creek Book 4

The Black Circle - 39 Clues Book 5

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