Into the Bright Unknown - Rae Carson (Gold Seer Trilogy #3)

Hmmm... What to say about this.  The conclusion of Rae Carson's Gold Seer trilogy, I had Into the Bright Unknown pre-ordered pretty much the moment it became available.  I loved Leah and her friends, and was eager to see the conclusion of her story, especially since the evil Uncle Hiram seemed to be out of the picture.

With Hiram being out of the picture, Carson had to make a sort of strange pivot for Leah & Co. in Into the Bright Unknown.  Instead of Leah trying to outwit her uncle and win freedom for herself and her friends in their mining would-be-town of Glory, she now has to face a different villain: the rich Hardwick, who we encountered in Like a River Glorious but who took a backseat in that book to Hiram's villainy.

In pivoting the story, I think Carson tried to hold on to the same "feel," but I'm not sure she succeeded.  What she did succeed in is writing an 1850 gold rush-themed episode of Leverage with Leah and her friends in starring roles.  As they all plot to take down Hardwick for a variety of reasons, each person has a piece they're trying to carry out that's separate from the rest.  Carson does finally introduce another character with "abilities," but despite the big "mystery" surrounding her (I would have loved to see more of her!) I had her pinned pretty much from the start, as well as the "big twist" at the end.  Maybe I've just read too many books by this point, but these plot contrivances were pretty see-through.

Once again in this trilogy, the setting does the heavy lifting.  The story takes place mostly in San Francisco, when the city is busy rebuilding from a devastating fire that destroyed most of the area.  Leah and her friends take up residence in a ship that was run aground and abandoned, which is completely charming.  This is good for the setting, because the characters leave a lot to be desired.  Becky has become spunky between the first book and this one, but still doesn't have much depth, and honestly none of the characters have much.  Leah herself is a bit better, but still not really a character to write home about; her abilities develop, but she never does.

Overall, this was okay; light and enjoyable, but I doubt I'll remember much about it in a few months.  This trilogy was better at the start, and it's been a pretty steady decline since; a disappointment compared to Carson's wonderful Girl of Fire and Thorns and its sequels, which seemed to get better with every sentence.

2 stars out of 5.