Hi there Deltora fans and active contributors. This is my second review of the Three Doors series, this time I will be reviewing The Silver Door, the second book in the series. Obviously do not read in you haven't read The Golden Door and The Silver Door.
Although The Silver Door is a solid book in its own right, in comparison to the other two books in the series, to myself personally, it is the weakest in the series. Unlike The Golden Door which introduces many elements of the original series and introduces a very enjoyable and interactive environment, The Silver Door is a much darker and more serious book, heavily focusing on darker themes like despair and things like slavery and dark magic. The Silver Door does still introduce elements from the original Deltora series like the Shadow Lord and Ak-Baba, however the minor characters in this book feel lacking compared to the more influential characters from The Golden Door, and have a much smaller impact on the overall story.
Nevertheless, the primary protagonists; Rye, Sonia and to a lesser degree Dirk, are very enjoyable to read about and the evolution of Rye and Sonia into respectively more independent/asssertive and more assistful/less impulsive characters is fantastic. The Silver Door starts off well, finishing the story arc from The Golden Door with Rye, Dirk, Sonia and Faene D'Or returning to Weld via Fleet, finding it recently abandoned. Annocki is also introduced and more is learnt about events in Weld and the Keep, which is enjoyable to read. When the protagonists finally reach the Chamber of the Doors and go through the silver Door, they find a deserted wasteland. While this provides an interesting environment, it provides a lack a interactions with other characters and the environment itself, something that was enjoyable to read in the very similar environment in The Shadowlands. This makes The Silver Door interesting in that it follows a similar dark theme that Rodda has provided before in her writing but somehow makes its worse. Eventually, the protagonists reach Sholto (in my opinion a very boring character) and manage to prevent the Shadow Lord from unleashing an improved version of the Skimmers that have been attacking Weld. However, the story ends suddenly with the characters just simply returning to Weld, there is no side story like Fleet and Faene from The Golden Door, the story just lacks in meaningful secondary characters and due to the story taking place in an alternative future which does not come to pass (SPOILER) the story feels somewhat redundant, other than saving Sholto, for his more enjoyable storyline in the The Third Door.
Please leave your thoughts below, did you find the book interesting or not? Did you like the darker environment? Do you like Sholto?