SPOIL-FREE SUMMARY
Something is wrong in the North: a giant has appeared and is causing trouble. Lenora sneaks away to deal with it, using her magic so she won't be missed. But it turns out she can't just wish the giant away, in fact the Balance doesn't seem to be working. Lenora needs to figure it out, but she may have made some trouble herself.
LIKABILITY
Lenora is much likable then the last book. She isn't rude and arrogant and treats Coren much better. I almost wish we could just skip the last book, and already have her this nice.
After all, she still doesn't trust Coren completely, and keeps secrets from him. To have their relationship develop into trusting each other, instead of her not hating him, would have been preferable.
LENORA'S MAGIC-SPOILERS
Lenora doesn't seem quite worried about using her magic. I found this rather odd, considering the last book, where she learned about how powerful she is, and how that power can easily seduce her. Instead, she still dreams of running off and having an adventure, as though it is a game. Isn't that what she thought last time?
A NEW CHARACTER
We get a new character, a young girl named Sayley. Lenora notes how she reminds her of her younger self. Think of how she was in the first book: naive and using her abilities without thought of the consequences. But I do feel like we only skimmed the surface of this relationship.
THE SOURCE OF THE PROBLEM-SPOILERS
Throughout the book, the problem is that the giant cannot be just thought away. Magic doesn't seem to be working. In fact it only works on and off, causing Lenora quite a few problems. So we muddle along, wondering about why this is. Eventually we find out that in Grag, there are no longer following the balance. And that is way things are crazy. But it's in solving the problem where things start to make no sense.
THE CLIMAX-SPOILERS
Eventually, Lenora goes back in time. It's chaotic because everyone is constantly changing the nature of reality and who they are. Ironically, it turns out that she is the one who created the balance. And then she goes back home.
I think it was trying to be clever. But I never really wondered about the origins of the Balance in this book. Although I did in the first.
In this book, I wondered why it was no longer working and how to fix it. I think perhaps the origins should have been explored in the first book, and Lenora's abilities in the second. It just felt like it would have naturally progressed better that way.
MAJOR PLOTHOLE
And then there is the matter of the return to the Balance. How would Lenora's going back and time and realizing she created the Balance on accident, restore the present Balance? I thought it was the People of Grag's fault. And Lenora even mentions that mess is still going on. She does vaguely wonder if her and Sayley being so powerful had something to do with it. But this thought passes by so quick that you'll miss it if you're not paying attention. It's just so confusing.
FREEDOM TO SLAVERY-SPOILERS
When Lenora goes back in time, she finds a history book that explains everything to her. Apparently when technology got advanced, people no longer needed to work and could do anything they want. So their brains evolved to control reality. This alone I found silly. The more technology has evolved, the dumber people seem to get. We have to do less because technology does it for us. We have so much free time and we don't do anything worthwhile with it, let alone learn and expand our minds. But lets ignore this for now.
Lenora wonders how everyone could give up freedom. But then she sees chaos and thinks maybe freedom isn't so good. Remember earlier, when she leaves the castle and sees how fake and controlled the population seems? It felt like a cult. There was no freedom at all. In the epilogue, she mentions that the balance is still too strict. It seems this should have been dealt in the actual plot, not an afterthought.
I just feel like the story was far too shallow to deal with such weighty, philosophical issues.
CONCLUSION
Lenora is much more likable, and should have been this way from the start. Not to mention she spends the plot pushing the story along unlike before. And yet there are some pretty big flaws: mainly, not addressing the issue of what is destroying the balance, as well as the controlled, robot-like population. We spend too much time trying to be clever with a plot twist instead of explaining how the main problem was solved. I give “More Minds” two stars.
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