The Last Council: A Graphic Novel (Amulet #4) (4) Paperback – September 1, 2011

This is the fourth book in the Amulet series by Kibuishi. I love this series and this book added even more to the story.Emily and her friends travel to Cielis to hopefully get help from the Council to fight the Elf King. Things don't go as planned and Emily is thrown into a contest against other Stonekeepers to see who is worthy of a seat on the council. During this the Elf King's son is thrown into jail, and Emily's shipmates are left wandering the strangely empty town of Cielis.This installment didn't progress the story as far as other installments have, mainly because our group of characters gets split up for the majority of the story. We also don't get to spend much time with the characters we know and love (much of the story follows Emily and she is separated from everyone else); but we do meet some interesting new characters.Emily meets a few other Stonekeepers, so it was interesting to see how the other Stonekeepers wield their Stones. Emily also seems to have come to an uneasy balance with her Stone and is starting to trust its advice more than she used to. The plot takes some unexpected twists and turns that kept me guessing and wondering how everything will pan out in the end.Miskit and Cogsley have some interesting adventures of their own and acquire an adorable new little dragon friend. Can't wait to see what their new little dragon friend turns into over time!The illustration is colorful, beautiful and wonderful...as it has been for all of the books in this series. I love the artwork in these books, they are just so wonderful to look at. There is still a little bit of a steampunk element in this book, but not as much as in previous books.Overall another wonderful installment in this series. Beautiful artwork, great characters, a fascinating world, and a story that keeps getting better and better. The story doesn't progress as much in this installment as it has in previous ones; mainly because the characters are split up for the majority of the story. I still really enjoyed reading this and can't wait to see what happens next.

Emily and her friends think that part of their troubles are over and they'll finally meet the Guardian Council. But something isn't right. Streets are empty and the townspeople live in fear of those around them. The Elf King hasn't arrived yet, but he might as well have. Emily is escorted to the Academy where she'll compete with others for a spot on the Council. But a terrible and frighting secret is about to be revealed and destruction is looming ever closer.Kazu continues to weave a wonderful tale of adventure and intrigue. Every page brings a new surprise into this journey and at the end of each volume I can't help but wait for the next one to find out what happens next. In this volume the characters continue to evolve and show new depths to who they are as they get closer to finding out a dark secret. The only minor gripe that I have about the story is just how many characters we're keeping up with but it's a minor one as each character adds more to the story. But it's the same type of gripe I had about Jeff Smith's Bone and when read all together it's much easier to follow along. The artwork continues to evolve and grow as well, creating new and more detailed worlds.I eagerly look forward to the next volume in this series and hope the wait won't be too long.

I really have no words that can convey how impressed I am with this fine series by Kazu Kibuishi."The Last Council" is like "The Empire Strikes Back" of the Amulet series in which Emily has to face the darker side of the hero's journey. New characters are introduced as older characters come back into the story.What is impressive about "The Last Council" is that three different stories are presented in one volume and it shows the growth of Kazu and his team that these stories are balanced so well and work together so that when you arrive to the end, it feels organic.A continued enjoyment of the series is Emily's mother who has a really great line while they are in Cielis which is both true in general but wrong in context to the situation. When you read the story, you'll know exactly what that means. But that line shows just how finely tuned this story has become.The art, especially, is beautiful. And while the characters are round and "cartoon-y", the story itself does not shirk from showing just how risky the adventure has become.I look forward to new volumes of this fantastic series.

My nine year old son reads through these books very quickly and really seems to like them. I had some reservations because they have a lot more pictures than words. Nonetheless, he really finds them enjoyable and I figure as long as he is also reading books that have sentences on a page and lots of words, these are no problem. There are some mature themes related to death, but they seem age appropriate, not gratuitously violent, and have some positive themes in them. They make him excited about books, so I'm happy with them for him.