Overall Rating- 5/5
Hey everyone, how are you all? Today I’ll be reviewing one of my favourite childhood series, Deltora Quest. I first read this series back when I was like….Year 7 or something? And I really liked it. The reason why I re-read is that I’ve gotten a bit tired of the typical books nowadays. They tend to have too much romance and not enough plot and action. Also the general plot seems to be somewhat repeating itself, although in different ways. I miss a good book that’s purely full of fantasy, adventure or mystery. Hence, I went and re-read this series.
So, the first series itself made up of 8 books. I’ll write a little comment about each of them and individual ratings as well ^^
Overall Summary (Goodreads): For centuries, the evil Shadow Lord has been plotting to invade Deltora and enslave its people. All that stands in his way is the magic Belt of Deltora with its seven gems of great and mysterious power. Now, Leif, Barda, and Jasmine must unite to find the seven gems and save Deltora from an eternity of darkness.
Book 1: Forest of Silence
Rating- 4.5/5 .jpg)
I really liked the start of this series. I loved how there’s a background story, which accompanies the reasons why Lief must go and find the gems of Deltora. This one has always been one of my favourites, one of the reasons because it’s where they meet Jasmine. She had stumbled upon Lief and Barda at first, to steal their belongings as they were paralyzed by these creatures. However, her compassion won and she helped them. Eventually she became their companions and a great addition to their team. I love strong female characters like her who can take care of themselves and doesn’t need help all the time. I also found the Guardian in this book interesting. If you don’t know the series, each of the gem that the company are looking for, are guarded by a fearsome Guardian. This Guardian was a man long ago who had looked for flowers called Lilies of Life with his companions, but his greed caused him to kill his companion. He ended up being stuck to guarding the lilies and killing people who are trying to steal it. The way that they defeated him was rather…by chance? Haha well Kree, Jasmine’s bird, saved Lief’s life and enabled him to take the topaz, the symbol of faithfulness. Yay, go Kree!! ^o^
Book 2: The Lake of Tears
Rating: 4.5/5
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I just loved the riddles in this book!! Oh, have I mentioned that this series is full of riddles? I loved reading and trying to solve these riddles! It makes me feel really proud whenever I manage to solve it~
Anyway the start of the book has the group stumbling into a trap, as always…..^.^;;;; They had entered a quicksand and was saved by Nij and Doj. The group thought they were good people, even though they were speaking in a language they couldn’t understand. However, really they were just under a spell that makes whatever the two says sound backwards…their names are actually Jin and Jod, children of a fearsome witch, Thaegan. I felt really proud when I figured it out as soon as I met them~~ hahaha!! xDD
I also loved the riddles that came out with the guardian of the bridge. I can proudly say I managed to solve 2 of them. Unfortunately the third one was a dirty trick pulled by the guardian. However, Lief was just so good! He managed to trick the guardian and also saved its life (it’s actually a bird cursed by Thaegan to be a guardian).
The Guardian itself was a sea monster called Soldeen. The battle was interesting, although the final battle was against the witch herself, Thaegan. Either way, they managed to escape and took another gem, the ruby which is the symbol of happiness.
Book 3: City of Rats
Rating: 4/5
Yikes~~~ this book has always been my least favourite in this series. Reason for that being…..well uhh…does the title hold a clue? ^.^;;; There were thousands of huge rats crawling through the plain, eating everything. Yuck~~~ ><
The most memorable part for me was when the group ended up in Noradz. Have I mentioned that they ALWAYS get into trouble? Well the Noradzeer people at first seems like perfectly good people who live in prosperity. However they have strange customs such as whenever someone spill food, it’s considered great treachery and they must be punished. For example with death. It’s ridiculous. The leaders of the race also inspects every food that the cooks make everyday, and most of them are considered unworthy and supposedly thrown away. I was disgusted, just like Lief was. Many people in Deltora was starving as there was great shortage of food due to the Shadow Lord. So, how can these people just throw perfectly good food away? The answer was simple. It was because the leaders were secretly delivering the ‘thrown away’ food to the Grey Guards, servants of the Shadow Lord. Who would have thought? Either way they managed to escape and went to the plain where all the rats are. How disgusting…
So, they defeated the Guardian which was a giant snake (yikes) and took the third gem- the opal- which is a symbol of hope.
Book 4: The Shifting Sands
Rating: 4/5
Okay well this book remains the….vaguest book in the series. The reason being was the Guardian of the fourth gem. That creature on the cover? Yeah, that’s not the Guardian. That’s just one of the hideous desert creatures. The Guardian is actually the desert itself, or called ‘The Hive’. The Hive is…..something that I still don’t understand….it uhh has this pyramid thing underneath the sands made up of dead beings though…which was disgusting. But uh yeah, I’ve given up on trying to understand The HIve. I tried, I really did, but to no avail. Ah well, Lief is smarter than me~~ Haha even Barda didn’t get it so that’s fine ^o^
My favourite part is the games they participated in Rithmire. It was like a fighting game, although much, MUCH more ruthless. It was also where you first meet Doom! Who is quite an important character~~ Anyway, the winner of the games ended up being Jasmine! Wohoo~~ I was so proud of her. She proved that she was the ‘strongest’ out of everyone there! Either way, they managed to beat The Hive and took the fourth gem – the lapis lazuli- which is a powerful talisman.
Book 5: Dread Mountain
Ratings: 4.5/5
This is where the first met the Kin! Well the Kin are gentle, winged creatures who used to live in Dread Mountain. However they were forced out of the mountain when the Shadow Lord begin his reign. The group became friends with Filli, who helped them get to the mountain with two other Kin. They are really nice, and they also come out in the…third series I believe.
Either way at the start, I disliked the gnomes, who dared tricked the group! However, really they were forced to become slaves to that hideous looking toad in the cover, called Gellick. Ah by the way, the gnomes had to breed some flies in the caves to feed Gellick. Yuck. They were cages everywhere filled with hundreds and thousands of flies! Ugh…..
Ah, before you asked, the cages had nets wrapped around it so that the flies can’t escape xD
So, when Gellick was defeated I was VERY happy. Oh, he became tree! How cool is that? Haha good for the environment~~
And hence, the group secured the fifth gem- the emerald- a symbol of honour…Also, the Kin managed to go back to their home in the mountains!~
Book 6: Maze of the Beast
Rating: 4.5/5
I just love the riddles in thsi book! Also, it is when they became acquainted to Dain who told them about Ols. Uhh yeah that guy…..this is revealed in the last book but he’s not a good guy. Thing is I can’t remember much from when I first read it, but Dain was…..unsettling? At first he was nice and all but he became too…perfect and suspicious. Turns out I was right when I got to the last book~ xDD
The Guardian here was…..yuck. Sheesh a lot of them are disgusting aren’t they? Yup, it’s that ferocious looking slug on the cover. It was called the Glus and I was seriously tense when the group were running away from him in the maze. So heart-wrenching! I even felt bad for Milne one of the pirates (not a good guy) that was killed by the Glus. Yuck, don’t wanna imagine it…….
Either way they successfully retrieved the sixth gem- the amethyst- symbol of truth..just one more to go!~~
Book 7: Valley of the Lost
Rating: 5/5
Now this book is my favourite of the series. Why? Of course because of the riddles! The Guardian was that guy in the cover and to beat him, they had to guess his name. Of course, it wasn’t an easy task. They had to find clues all around his domain. Okay well…I would love to explain the clues but it would be much too long and complicated. Since that was the greatest highlight, unfortunately that means this book’s review will be shorter. Either way…they managed to guess the Guardian’s name (and freed him from his curse) and retrieved the last gem- the diamond- a symbol of purity and strength.
Book 8: Return to Del
Rating: 4.5/5
Man, it’s kinda hard to talk about each books….I haven’t talked about the characters have I? Well let’s do that after this book. So in this book, Lief and company needs to go back to Del and find the heir to the throne who must wear the belt. Unfortunately however they are missing a very important part of the belt, the order of the gems. They must be placed in this order, Diamond, Emerald, Lapis Lazuli, Topaz, Opal, and Ruby. Which if you notice, spells out DELTORA. Luckily, Lief is as smart as ever and managed to figure it out, I’m proud of ya!~~ ^o^
When he managed to figure that out he still didn’t realize that Lief is the heir~ Ah well it was well hidden, unfortunately since I’ve read it before, I knew it from the start though ^^
Well I though it was a nice end to the series….even though it’s the last book, it doesn’t go straight away to the end. They still had to face some troubles such as the order of the gems and Del getting attacked. So yup, overall a nice ending to a great series.
Characters:
Now for the characters….my favourite character is Lief. It’s not often that I like the main protagonist, but I really liked Lief. He’s brave, admirable and somewhat cunning. What impressed me the most is his ability to solve riddles and all that. In other words, Lief is very smart. He also showed great compassion towards others, which I’m sure are great personalities for a king. Jasmine, is my second favourite. I liked her mainly because she’s not a useless female character. I hate main female characters who are helpless and needs saving all the time. However Jasmine is strong and brave, and she can obviously take care of herself. I mean, she managed to win in the Games after all and beat Doom!! Now Barda….He’s I suppose like the guardian figure for Lief and Jasmine. I mean he’s also the oldest, so it makes sense too. Barda is greatly loyal and trusts his companions. He also showed worry over Lief and Jasmine, especially Lief whom was trusted to him. I quite liked Barda too, and he’s also very helpful in their quest.
So, that’s one of my favourite series. It’s filled with wonderful riddles, adventure and ferocious creatures. It’s really a great series, so if it’s your type of genre, please do read it! I know it’s considered children fiction, but seriously it shouldn’t stop you from reading it. The plot, characters, creatures and riddles in these books are sure to keep you entertained ^^
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