City of Secrets review

[alobear]

City of Secrets, by Mary Hoffman is a solidly entertaining addition to the Stravaganza series.  The premise is getting a bit repetitive now, with a different kid from the same school given the power to travel to another world during the night, but the re-introduction of a lot of the characters from previous books keeps the story moving forwards and allows the reader to find out what's happening to familiar as well as new people.  The bad guys are always the same, though, and always have a similar objective (to discover the secret of Stravagation), so the plot wasn't exactly original, but I liked the new Stravagante, and thought the way all the different story threads were brought together was well done.

City of Ships is next in the series, though the fact that several of the previous Stravagante will be dispersing to various universities shortly probably means they won't be reappearing, so perhaps Hoffman has realised some fresh ideas are needed for the series to continue successfully.