The Last Thirteen Book 6: 8

The Last Thirteen Book 6: 8 by James Phelan (Scholastic Australia)

PB RRP $14.99

ISBN 978-1-74283-189-3

Reviewed by Jenny Heslop

Sam’s dreams are getting more unpredictable. But with this rise in instability comes the ability for him to manipulate them more and change the outcomes of real life occurrences. His latest nightmare leads him to a marina in Cuba where he is taking shelter from a storm with Tobias, Xavier and Rapha. And also to Maria, the 8^th Dreamer.

The next piece of the Da Vinci machine lies deep beneath the ocean surface somewhere within an ancient shipwreck and this time they are not only trying to avoid Hans and Stella, but also Scarface, a very angry shark. Along with the treasure, they must also find Maria’s father.

After the slower pace of the last instalment, this book is non-stop adrenalin from jumping off the cliff in the jungle to the cliff hanging ending in Florida. Alongside Sam’s mission in Cuba there are two more fast-paced storylines running. 

Eva and Lora have been kidnapped by Mac, a rogue member of the Dreamers Council, who is trying to convince Eva to join forces with him and Solaris. He seems to think that Eva is more important than they currently know and may even be the most important of the Thirteen Dreamers.

Meanwhile, the Agency/Enterprise alliance have tracked Stella down to an abandoned bunker in Canada and Alex, with his mother Phoebe and a back-up team of Guardians have travelled there to investigate what Stella may be interested in.

With very short chapters jumping in-between these three concurrently running stories, there is barely time to draw breath and this ramps up the action even further. Every time the focus leaves a character, the reader is left anxious about the heroes’ predicament. This encourages even faster reading.

The deeper into the series I get, the more invested I am in the characters and the more complex and interesting the plot becomes. I really like that the lines between good and bad are not always as clear cut as they would first seem and although a high level of suspension of disbelief needs to be maintained, once hooked, it is a wild ride.

This series has a serialised single storyline which will continue at the rate of one book a month until the conclusion is reached in the thirteenth book. Also check out www.thelast13.com, an online companion page with VIP Access. There are 13 prizes to be won with each book release, e-newsletters, access code breakers and many more features.

James Phelan is an Australian author who has written adult thrillers as well as the Lachlan Fox series and the Alone trilogy for older teenagers.