And so Agatha Heterodyne’s journey brings us to the siege of her home town of Mechanicsburg. As she continues to try and repair the castle that co-ordinates the town’s defences, Gil and Tarvek are trying to sort things out on Castle Wulfenbach. And the Jagers are back! Properly! This book has a surfeit of Jagers, if such a thing were possible, although is sadly counterbalanced by a smaller role for the castle, which I’ve come to grow very fond of as a character.
The story is still flying along at breakneck pace, and the siege is pretty tense. There are some great moments though, like Franz (the monster) telling invaders to rejoice at the return of the Heterodyne as he stomps all over them, and the ongoing character moments with the minions (von Zinzer’s progress to chief minion not least, and the blossoming romance between Airman Higgs and Zeetha). The Foglios definitely know how to do a cliffhanger too, and the mad-scientist lightning here is as effective as the Doom Bell from last volume.
At the time of writing, there’s only one more volume left that’s been published, so the question is whether to get it now or to wait and savour it? Ah, who am I kidding, I’m only good at self-denial when it’s something I don’t want…
