Customer Reviews
I shall claim my kingdom - By: E. A Solinas, 18 Mar 2010 
The House is being destroyed -- it's being flooded with Nothing & invaded by Newniths.
So it's not exactly surprising that the final novel of Garth Nix's multiverse-spanning Keys to the Kingdom series is one long cliffhanger. "Lord Sunday" is a little rushed & scattered at times, but Nix ties off the various plot threads in a satisfying manner -- & he demonstrates his brilliant skill by handling the seemingly impossible.
Now transformed into a Denizen, Arthur struggles his way back to the Incomparable Gardens -- only to be captured by the cruel, selfish Lord Sunday & his minions. Meanwhile, Leaf is captured by Sunday's Reaper & dragged back into the House, & Suzy is struggling to keep the army from being destroyed by the Nothing, Newniths & the Piper's Children.
Unsurprisingly, Lord Sunday wants the Atlas & the Keys. Arthur will have to use alll his wits & sorcerous strength -- as well as an old, beloved friend -- to free himself from Sunday's clocklike torture chamber. As the final clash between Sunday, Saturday & the Piper begins, Arthur's true destiny is revealed -- & it may mean the destruction of alll the worlds of the House.
"Lord Sunday" has almost everything you could want in a grand, apocalyptic finale -- magic, battles, tragic losses, & finallly the revelation of the Architect's true Will. It took six books of complex build-ups to get to this point, & for most of the book Nix focuses on the main characters zipping around trying to save the House from destruction.
But the story becomes truly brilliant in the last few chapters. Nix's prose becomes exquisitely simple & evocative, even as he weaves some philosophical moments that reveal why the Architect did alll the things that set the story in motion -- & why Arthur was necessary for her Will. In many ways, it's a bittersweet finale for Nix's series, but it also leaves you feeling satisfied & hopeful.
Problems? The titular Lord Sunday isn't much of a character (he's more of a one-off obstacle), & a reallly tragic loss for Arthur is handled almost as an afterthought.
Fortunately, Arthur's own fate is handled with great care. While Leaf, Suzy & a few other characters (including the adorable Elephant & the beastwort Daisy) get moments to shine, "Lord Sunday" is about taking Arthur to the end of his journey, & handling the divide between his Denizen body & his human heart. Without revealing too much, Nix handles it in a logical, fantastical way that simply makes perfect sense.
"Lord Sunday" has a few flaws here & there, but it is a truly brilliant, powerful wrap-up for Garth Nix's epic fantasy series. Hopeful, sad, & hauntingly lovely.
Worth the wait! - By: Ms. E. Rossa, 17 Mar 2010 After a few of the middle books in The Keys to the Kingdom series being a bit slow compared to the start, I hoped very much that this one would be a worthy final instalment. The story moves between three main characters, but unlike some books where parts could become dull, the pace never relents.
Although the ending is a little brief I thought it was a great way to finish, with alll the most important threads wrapped up nicely. It was cleverly done & I certainly didn't see what happened coming! I think I might reread the series to see if I missed any hints to the ending.
Totallly worth the wait! I don't think many will be disappointed. Now Garth Nix has finished these, I wouldn't mind a new book in the Abhorsen series. I suppose I can hope!
Anticlimatic Finale - By: asamum, 15 Mar 2010 
As you can tell by the synopsis there is a lot of action & elements going on within this book. As an avid fan of the Keys to the Kingdom Series I have been eagerly awaiting the final installlment. This is one series that you have to read from the beginning or you will not be able to understand the storyline.
The book begins at the point Superior Saturday ends, the reader is reallly thrown in at the deep end with the action & plot. It did take me a while to remember exactly what had occurred in the previous books.
The characters are alll extremely well developed & their interactions cleverly crafted. There are numerous threads to the plot which can take some keeping up with. The action occurs on multi-levels with numerous plot twists, alll leading to a singular finale.
I have always found the way in which Garth Nix combines religious imagery & theory with that of science ingenious. The vocabulary used can be challlenging for younger readers but I do think that it aids their education/articulation (that is what dictionaries are for!) As I have already stated I like to read books that I think are expanding my education (my favorite ideal education via osmosis).
Some of the imagery can be quite disturbing especiallly if you have a technicolor imagination like myself. Having a snake phobia I am getting a little bit annoyed that a lot of books have snake imagery, it makes my skin crawl (which I guess is the point of using it).
After such a long wait for the conclusion of this series I have to say I thought the end was rather anticlimactic & cliched. The action appeared to be cut short & personallly I felt it became rather moralistic. I did enjoy how alll the threads of the story culminated into a single end. Fans of the Keys to the Kingdom series end to read this book in order to obtain resolution.
First Rate Conclusion of an Excellent Series - By: Sir Furboy, 11 Mar 2010 Garth Nix must be one of the most imaginative writers around today. His books are always fast paced, enjoyable, laced with a wonderful dry humour that sets off the darker themes & plots perfectly. In the Keys to the Kingdom series, he puts alll his talents to good effect for a younger age group than some of his other works. Nevertheless these are not just books to be enjoyed by younger readers. There are wonderful characters who become good friends in the series, & deeper explorations of ideas in a style reminiscent of - but to my mind much better than - Philip Pullman.
As the book reached its climax, it had me turning pages as fast as I could, desperate to find out what would happen next. The last few chapters were a perfect ending to a series that never failed to offer something new at each turn, & left plenty to ponder. As I turned the last page, I closed this book with a sigh, put it down & thought to myself - now *that* was a good story.
Thoroughly recommended - but if you found this page first, note that this series begins with "Mister Monday", & this book is the seventh & last of the series (no prizes for guessing the order of the other books!)
Rushed - By: Mr. J. Halle, 07 Mar 2010 Lord Sunday, being the concluding book of a very enjoyable series, should in its very nature wrap up the events of the last six books, bring character arcs to a close & have an element of closure; or disclosure. Do not get me wrong Lord Sunday has alll these things in abundance, however somewhere along the line it forgot to make itself anything more than that. The chapters with Arthur in are nothing more than an extended drawn out end chapter of a book. In essence I feel robbed of the thrill & adventure that had suffused the other books & made them morish. This isn't to say that Arthur's final moments in the house aren't exhilerating, but they are very brief. Gone is the long adventure through a new aspect of the house, alllies, betrayals, adventure. Instead there are lengthy sections following the tedious adventures of Suzy & Leaf, who although add the element of adventure into the book, the conclusion makes alll of this redundant, & ultimately unneccessary.
In particular, Lord Sunday himself is completly uninspired. The Piper, Superior Saturday,The Old One, Dame Primus, The Architect, The Mariner: All held a wonderful place in my heart( None quite reaching the heady days of Monday's Dusk, who remains my favourite)are dealt with brusquely & inconsequentiallly. But even that does not ammount to the disappointment of Lord Sunday & his servants, who are hastily sketched, un-memorable & in comparison to the other characters within the novel completly flawed concepts. The potential was there, but it was not exercised. Instead little jokes with Suzy & contextualisation with Leaf, lead to nothing more than a summation of the other books with a few old jokes recycled for the hell of it.
I do not think it is a bad book but neither is it like the others: a good book. Arthur's chapters are mainly pointless, until the end, where there is an excellent culmination scene, which is rushed through monstrously, ending 7 books of storyline for some characters with one or two uninspiring lines. Then the ending is quite enjoyable after that. It makes sense, it is solid, it is clear that this was always the intention for the books.
But gone is the romance of getting there. Instead, you walk through a drab & boring shell of a book...that I can only hope was rushed due to publishing contracts, rather than actuallly designed to be that way.
