Books: The Conference of the Birds By Ransom Riggs (2020)

"With his dying words, H—Jacob Portman’s final connection to his grandfather Abe’s secret life entrusts Jacob with a mission: Deliver newly con­tacted peculiar Noor Pradesh to an operative known only as V. Noor is being hunted. She is the subject of an ancient prophecy, one that foretells a looming apocalypse. Save Noor—Save the future of all peculiardom. With only a few bewildering clues to follow, Jacob must figure out how to find V, the most enigmatic, and most powerful, of Abe’s former associates. But V is in hiding and she never, ever, wants to be found."

People are going to love or hate The Conference of the Birds, the fifth book in the Miss Peregrine’s Peculiar Children series by Ransom Riggs, as it moves slowly towards what should be book six sometime in 2021. Much like JK Rowling’s movie prequel series to the Harry Potter franchise, which has divided the fan base, one has to ask if this series was needed. Sure, it’s set in America, which opens a whole new universe of new Peculiar’s, but does it add anything to the first three books, which came to a satisfying conclusion in The Library of Souls? 

Part of the problem is the book lies flat, and is often dull between some remarkable violence for a kid’s book. Picking up shortly after the Map of Days, this one introduces a prophecy that brings back (spoiler) the villain from the first trilogy. Who was trapped in a loop he should NOT be able to get out of. Can’t say this is a great development. 

The book, as noted, has a bunch of savage-like violence mixed in and leaves a lot of the charming humor aside. There is a forced romance between Noor and Jacob, and it’s written very awkward-like (not in a good way).

Overall, The Conference of the Birds is the weakest book of the five, which maybe the reason Random House released the book three weeks after Christmas. They knew the reviews would be savage.

Books: A Map of Days By Ransom Riggs (2018)

“Having defeated the monstrous threat that nearly destroyed the peculiar world, Jacob Portman is back where his story began, in Florida. Except now Miss Peregrine, Emma, and their peculiar friends are with him, and doing their best to blend in. But carefree days of beach visits and normalling lessons are soon interrupted by a discovery—a subterranean bunker that belonged to Jacob’s grandfather, Abe. Clues to Abe’s double-life as a peculiar operative start to emerge, secrets long hidden in plain sight. And Jacob begins to learn about the dangerous legacy he has inherited—truths that were part of him long before he walked into Miss Peregrine’s time loop. Now, the stakes are higher than ever as Jacob and his friends are thrust into the untamed landscape of American peculiardom—a world with few ymbrynes, or rules—that none of them understand.”

Much of A Map of Days is just a long set for what is a new arc for Jacob Portman, which is not saying it’s a bad thing, but there are a lot of set pieces he and friends need to go through before we get to the point of the fourth novel. And even though the plot is not exactly original, author Ransom Riggs does open his series a bit, moving the action from Europe to America and I give him credit for not just rehashing what came before.

After a somewhat slow start –the typical fish-out-of-water concept of kids taken from the past and tossed into the modern world- the book eventually gets going. Yearning to more about his late grandfather, Jake and his fellow Peculiar friends, set out on a road trip to find (eventually) another recruit, a young peculiar named Noor. Much like Jacob, Noor appears to have a very powerful gift, one that appears many people in Americanized peculiar world are now willing to do anything to posses.

Riggs creates a tangled America of peculiars here, where many live in isolated time loops, afraid of not only the normals, but others like them. No longer are peculiars working and trusting each other like in the Devil’s Acre, because there is a mighty fear, along with a schism, within the many syndicates, gangs, boroughs that make up the American peculiars. Late in the book, though, we begin to see why, as there is some shadowy organization everyone fears, one that has helicopters and Men In Black vans.

Meanwhile, if you like sudden, almost savage-like violence mixed with some snark and low-brow humor, you’ll find that unchanged from the first series. As with the others, we also get a set of new photographs that serve touchstones for the many set pieces. There is pacing issues at the beginning, and the series continues to shadow Harry Potter at times (and X Men), but there are some genuine thrills here and I found the book well worth the three year wait.

Books: Library of Souls By Ransom Riggs (2015)

Library of Souls picks up where Hollow City left off, with 16 year-old Jacob Portman and teen looking Emma Bloom (who is well over 100) following the vanishing trail of their kidnapped friends, who’ve disappeared into the Devil’s Acre, the most dangerous loop in all of peculiardom. Here are the outcasts of the Peculiars, the exiles, the criminals, and the drug addicts that all exist within the dark heart of the paradise, along with the  villainous wights. But all may not be lost, as Jacob and Emma encounter an unlikely benefactor, who with his ingenious loop-making machine, will finally be able help them make their final stand in place where the fate of every peculiar children will be decided once and for all.

With the conclusion, author Ransom Riggs gives us a satisfying, tense, often strange and moving ending to a series that rose above the mere expectations of being just another Harry Potter tale. We get a wonderful voice in Jacob, who comes off as a very convincing with a believable transformation from awkward young man to the Chosen One (yes, I know. But there is only so many ways to tell these tales). Still this X Men meets many British World War II Costume Dramas meets Doctor Who (the whole Panloopticon reminds me of the serial Carnival of Monsters) rises above the rest of books in this genre. Along with those sometimes creepy photographs, Ransom prose work brings together a fun, dark tale that brims with excitement.

Books: Hollow City By Ransom Riggs (2014)

The world of the "peculiars” is a persecuted subset of children and adults who have sideshow-style abilities and abnormalities. Introduced in Miss Peregrine’s Home For Peculiar Children, readers learn of them through Jacob Portman, who discovers the tales his grandfather told of him of strange folks who are live in some form of arrested development, living in a “loop” that is September 3, 1940 over and over again, was far from mere children stories. 

Now, with his grandfather dead and Jacob, having “lived” with the peculiars for a few months (and has discovered he may actually be one himself), joins them in their fight against those who would see them destroyed.

Hollow City picks up just after the cliffhanger ending of the first book, Jacob and his nine friends (including Miss Peregrine, their protector, stuck in bid form) are adrift on water, struggling to find land on which to put more miles between them and their pursuers, the blank-eyed wights and hollowgasts. The fellowships goal is to find the one ymbrynes, Miss Wren, who can transform Miss Peregrine back into human form. But they’re stuck in 1940, and that means becoming part of the events of World War II, which means dodging bombs, debris and just ordinary folks trying to help them. 

With this second volume, Ransom Riggs allows the characters to grow and become more human and not just an assembly of their various abilities. Love blooms for Jacob and affection for the survival of others brings new dimensions all. And I like that the allegory aspect of novel, with children fleeing their London homes as they did in during the bombings of that city by Hitler’s Nazi’s –and then there is the whole parable of the monsters that pursue the children being much like the stromtroopers of that era, with their love of cruelty and gruesome torture.

And while many might draw parallels to Harry Potter, I say so what. It’s an excellent book, and while it is fantasy, Riggs clearly realizes that you must always have reality slipping in between the cracks. Because reality is a very scary thing at times.

Books: Miss Peregrine’s Home For Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs (2011)

I came across Miss Peregrine’s Home For Peculiar Children in June of 2011, a month before Borders announced they were closing down for good. There was that odd, creepy cover with the floating girl, and then those weird and freaky vintage photos inside made me want to read the book. But I didn’t buy it and by the time the stores closing sales began, other books began occupying my mind (I hid a lot of books, which was fun, because the people running the closing –and my stick-in-the-mud GM- where on the look-out for employees stashing books). The thing with me and books is the real interesting ones, the more off-beat ones, have a tendency to stay with me. And this one did. 

But Miss Peregrine’s was to stay in hardcover for two years, only to finally see a paper edition this month. So I bought it at Target, excited to see it and read it. Now that I’ve completed, I’ve got say while the book is far from original, it’s still fun. 

Jacob's grandfather likes to tell these stories about how when he was a child he was sent away from home to an orphanage on a Welsh island, he was accompanied by other "peculiar" children and supposedly kept safe from "monsters". As Jacob grows from wondrous child to petulant teen he realizes that his grandfather's tales are probably just tall tales. Then his grandfather is horrifically killed in an "accident" and Jacob heads off to Wales to visit his grandfather's old home as a form of closure. But it soon becomes apparent that his grandfather was telling the truth all this time.

While the novel is just like many other YA novels of the supernatural that have come out since the Harry Potter series –it does follow the basic color wheel of plotting –Riggs does develop the characters well and creates some really bad monsters. The use of odd vintage photos enhances the story as well. 

Plus, it has time travel, and heaven knows, I love time travel stories.

Overall, a nice start to a series; book two is scheduled for January.