The Continuing problems with the Keeper of the Lost Cities Series

I had intended to publish this before Stellalune came out. Sadly, I have been unable. This post expresses my hopes, expectations, and fears for the most recent Keeper of the Lost Cities Novel.

Firstly, It is important to say that I love Keeper of the Lost Cities (KOTLC) I’ve bought and read every book and am excited to read many of the future ones. There is much in the series that I like which makes everything wrong with it so disappointing. Many people ask why Keeper of the Lost Cities is so bad. But, this comes mainly from a place of love.

Also, this critique will assume that you have read all KOTLC books. 

Characters

As the series has gone on, there has been a steady increase in the number of characters. In the first book, while there was a large cast, many characters were mainly in the background. Even characters that would come to be extremely important such as Keefe and Bianna were not given excessive amounts of attention and screen time. In the following two books, the core five members were established: Bianna, Dex, Fitz, Keefe, and Sophie. While this number is a bit large, with most series having 3-4 main characters, it is a completely manageable number.

However, currently, Sophie’s group of friends that she goes on adventures with has swelled significantly, up to ten. Now, it would be unfair to put all of those characters on the same level as the ‘core group.’ While Tam and Linh are certainly almost on par with the core group, Wylie, Marella, and Stina are not as important. And, interestingly, almost all of the characters are given defined, distinct personalities (for the most part, we’ll get to the bad parts later.)

The problem is that all of the characters are now all fighting for screen time. Core characters, such as Dex, often find themselves shunted to the side as the books’ new characters take up more space. Notably, as with other problems, this starts to become a major detractor in the latter books. 

The main problem is not necessarily that there are too many characters (As can be seen in the chart below, most of these characters were in the book from early on) but that too many characters are being thrust into the role of protagonist. 

The reason for this problem seems to be abilities. As much as the books point to the elves’ overreliance on their friends as a bad thing, the books will insert characters with new abilities to give Sophie an edge. Starting in book four two additional characters, Tam and Linh are added. Later on Wylie, Stina, Marella and even Maruca are thrust into the spotlight. This makes it harder for all of the characters to be developed, them having less time to shine.

And, as one can see from the table below, increasing time is devoted to Fitz and Keefe. They haven’t stolen the show, never getting even half the mentions that Sophie does. But they are much more prevalent then other characters.

	Keeper	Exile	Everblaze	Neverseen	Lodestar	Nightfall	Flashback	Legacy
Sophie	1013	1518	1743	1900	1585	2013	2285	2592
Keefe	115	314	586	832	473	844	644	971
Fitz	337	200	419	603	525	352	1034	427
Tam	0	0	0	120	240	309	241	338
Dex	306	209	230	408	306	234	224	264
Stina	56	31	30	26	30	5	28	226
Bianna	119	98	192	373	274	309	201	222
Linh	0	0	0	121	143	172	113	198
Wylie	6	29	14	4	151	70	29	176
Marella	62	30	22	22	56	109	74	73

The below table shows the number of times a character is mentioned as a percentage of the number of mentions that were allocated to Sophie. Sophie is the main character and should obviously have many more lines than other characters. And, as the books slowly grow in length, the number of times Sophie is mentioned grows accordingly. 

	Keeper	Exile	Everblaze	Neverseen	Lodestar	Nightfall	Flashback	Legacy
Sophie	1013	1518	1743	1900	1585	2013	2285	2592
Keefe	11%	21%	34%	44%	30%	42%	28%	37%
Fitz	33%	13%	24%	32%	33%	17%	45%	16%
Tam	–	–	–	6%	15%	15%	11%	13%
Dex	30%	14%	13%	21%	19%	13%	10%	10%
Stina	6%	2%	2%	1%	2%	1%	1%	8%
Bianna	12%	6%	11%	20%	17%	15%	8%	9%
Linh	–	–	–	6%	9%	9%	5%	8%
Wylie	1%	2%	1%	1%	10%	3%	1%	7%
Marella	6%	2%	1%	1%	4%	5%	3%	3%

Villains

In a story, characters can be proactive or reactive. Stories with proactive heroes involve them having a goal that they wish to achieve. In High School Musical, Troy and Gabriella want to sing with each other in the school musical. However, many stories, especially fantasy stories, involve reactive heroes. Here, the main characters mainly want to stop what someone else is doing. There is nothing wrong with this, but it puts pressure on the villains to move the plot forwards. The heroes need to know what they’re stopping, at least to some extent. And, having proactive villains means that they are of increased narrative importance. Problems with their writing are magnified.

No clear threat

The first problem is that the villains are no longer really a threat. A lot of the menace that they once held is gone. The main reason for this is that the villains seem incompetent. Many of them have died, and each of those deaths make them seem weak or incapable. Brant is crushed by a falling rock; Umber is just left to die. Alvar… These deaths are anticlimactic, happening without our heroes’ input. It makes it seem as though the villains will just dissolve on their own without the heroes’ help.

Additionally, there is no clear leadership or cohesion among the Neverseen. At the moment there are three competing versions of their plan, proposed by Lady Gisella, Vespera, and Fintan. Infighting is rife, with Lady Gisela being abandoned for dead, only to later take over the group. If the Neverseen are going to take each other out, why do the heroes need to do anything?

Unclear motivations

And, their motivations are very unclear. As I write this we are 8.5 books in and I cannot tell you exactly what they want to do or why. We know that they hate the humans, but admire their callousness. They are unsatisfied with humans’ current place, taking up the vast majority of the world’s land and resources. However, their experimenting on humans goes back to long before the human-elvin war. It is still unknown what their motivations are. We do not know any of their goals.

Now, don’t misrepresent my point. It isn’t a crime that there is ambiguity, or that some things aren’t revealed right away. However, because the villains are the driving forces behind the plot, some knowledge about what they are doing is necessary. If the heroes are trying to stop the Neverseen, we need to know what they are trying to stop. And yet we still learn nothing. 

Dropped plot threads

One of the biggest problems with the KOTLC series is how it treats its overarching mysteries. In each new book, new mysteries are raised and are not fully resolved leaving plot threads dangling. Moreover, when each book establishes their mystery, they’re not built upon what was going on in earlier books.

One example is in the book Nightfall. In that book, Sophie’s human parents are locked inside a facility called nightfall. This leads to two pressing questions, what is it and what was it built to do. We find it out where it is. And, we learn that it was built to experiment on humans, most likely prompting them to revolt against the elves. This is quite the revelation. However, Nightfall, and its sinister purpose are hardly brought up again in later books. This is disappointing, given the size and scope of the revelation. But, instead of digging deeper into Verspara’s past and the structure that is nightfall, Sophie and her friends largely forget about it.

Still, to give credit where it is due, parts of nightfall build off of things that happen in earlier books. In fact, this book establishes that the fires set during the first book were meant to help the Gorgonops hatch. This is a wonderful way to tie up a plot thread that had been dangling for four books.

However, many such plot threads continue to dangle. It is unclear whether the author ever plans to deliver on them, or if they are forgotten about. And, even if she plans to tie them all together in a satisfying way, will that matter? You cannot excuse a book’s faults and unsatisfactory plot points under the claims that it will get better.

Pacing

The pacing is not good. This is most notable in Flashback and Legacy, but it’s an issue that’s been building for some time. In Flashbook, that first half is spent in the healing center where no meaningful plot progression happens. Now, there was a good bit of character development, and I enjoyed the Foster-Keefe bonding time. However, it slowed the pacing to a crawl. That section of the book becomes a slog whenever I reread it.

Legacy has the opposite problem. It feels as though the author took half the plot of Flashback and shoved it into Legacy. There is just so much going on: Fitz + Sophie, Team Valiant, discovering Sophie’s birth parents, looking into the dwarves, as well as other smaller plots. The different plot threads don’t have time to breathe. It feels as though many don’t have the space to develop properly, even though the book is massive.

Conclusion

Keeper of the Lost Cities has a few problems. Most are likely caused by the fact that this was only planned to be a trilogy but was expanded into this. Possibly the series can no longer support its own weight. And yet, the series has a lot of interesting ideas. I loved book 4, and I adore Keefe- like the rest of the fanbase. The ideas are actually solid and the mysteries are intriguing, however, things need to start tying together. Really, my only hope is that Stellerlune answers more questions than it raises and that the conclusions are satisfying enough to make up for the amount that we’ve been jerked around.