Religion was the theme. But I wasn't expecting it.

I recently finished the next two books in the Ember series, The Prophet of Yonwood and The Diamond of Darkhold, as well as The Language of Bees by Laurie King.

The Prophet of Yonwood was well written and had an interesting plotline---jumping back to pre-city-of-Ember days. Ah, delicious twist, to take a book in the series backward before you go forwards again. Like a flashback, but with an entire book. Good story, good characters. But anti-religion, so I won't be keeping a copy on my shelves for one of my future teenagers to find. The anti-religion theme isn't overt, which is why it was scary, just as scary as the underlying (but obvious) anti-religiousness of The Subtle Knife by Pullman. DuPrau wouldn't admit that she's anti-religion, but that would be denial.

The Diamond of Darkhold was good. Recommendable if you like the rest of the Ember works. I liked the wrapping up at the end. Left me with a nice sigh of, "Oh. How nice." Since I am usually more likely to argue with an author's ending, this was a pleasant surprise.

As for Laurie King's The Language of Bees: I was excited about this one. Waited for it. Bought the hardback so I could read it on the plane (sans children, thus the reading material). And King clipped right along. King is blindingly intelligent on a range of subjects so it's refreshing when she wanders into places I wouldn't expect: Beekeeping anyone? Norse mythology? Celtic sites?

A joy.

My first complaint, though, is that King (again) played on the "religious organizations/leaders are underhanded" generalization. She's done this before (in Regiment) so I didn't think she'd go there again. Yet off she went.

Trite.

Worse than "The butler did it".

Well written. Well researched. I thoroughly enjoyed the new characters she introduced. But I won't keep a copy on my shelves---for the reasons above, but also because there's more sexuality in this book than I've seen in the others in the series, and legitimizing of relationships with which I don't agree. If any of the above will offend you, skip The Language of Bees. I'll find something just as good for you, but less questionable.