Archie Dent is still reeling from the loss of the Dragon Lantern. In fact, he no longer believes that he deserves to be a hero, and has taken to sulking in the shadows. But fate isn't about to let Archie off that easily. There are still two members of the League of Seven yet to be found. Meanwhile, Philomena Moffit is using the Dragon Lantern to raise an army of monsters, and is planning on marching them on New Rome. A war is brewing, and the League of Seven are going to have to take a final stand and defeat Moffat once and for all.
The League of Seven trilogy started off with a great first book, and an equally excellent second book. So, how does the third and final book do? Well, there were many things that I did enjoy about The Monster War. Having said that, there are also several fairly significant flaws. Let's start with what I enjoyed.
The book starts in Houston in the Republic of Texas. The people of this alternate Texas are primarily Latino, though they refer to themselves as mestizo. Mestizo is a Latin American term for people of mixed ancestry; usually European and Native American. Despite this, the Texans all talk, dress, and act like stereotypical Texas cowboys. Most of them speak in the typical Texas drawl, but will toss the occasional Spanish word or phrase in occasionally. Believe it or not, in our world, Texas didn't really have a large Latino population until relatively recently. In fact, up until the 1990s, German was the most common second language in Texas. Obviously, this has very much changed over the past couple decades due to shifting demographics.
Like in our world, Houston is home to a massive arena. However, it is a colosseum-esque arena known as the Astral Dome. The ceiling and corridors as covered in glowing bioluminescent lights that look like the night sky. It is another leftover relic from Atlantis. It is at the Astral Dome that Archie meets Gonzalo. He's a member of the Texas Rangers, just like his parents and siblings. He's good are sharp shooting, horse riding, lassoing, and other typical cowboy things. All of this is very impressive given that he is also completely blind. Oh, but don't worry, he has a talking raygun named Señor X to act as his seeing eye...uh, gun.
It hasn't escaped my notice that Archie's iteration of the League of Seven falls into that trope you see in a lot of kids media. The one where all the kids in the man group are various tokens. We've got the token Black kid (Clyde), the token Asian kid (Kitsune), the token Latino (Gonzalo), the token Scottish kid (Fergus). So, I guess it makes since there would also be a token disabled kid to go along with everyone else. I was worried that Hachi would be the token Native American kid, but thankfully, we got another Native American member of the team. We'll discuss her in a minute.
Señor X has an Aztec-esque design; he looks like a turquoise serpent. That made me wonder what the X stood for. Perhaps it stood for Xiuhcoatl? It is a name that can mean multiple things. It can mean fire serpent, and there is a creature by that name in Aztec Mythology. However, it can also mean hidden weapon. Both interpretations would certainly suit a raygun like Señor X.
Lo and behold, I was correct. Turns out, Señor X, or rather, Xiuhcoatl, was created by the Lemurian iteration of the League of Seven. The Lemurians were the forerunners of the Mesoamerican civilizations; just like the Atlanteans were with the Native Americans from above the Rio Grande. Though, it turns out even Lemuria had its own predecessors in the form of Atlan. Their name appears to be a reference to Aztlan, the mythical homeland of the Aztec people. It is from Aztlan that we get the word Aztec. The people we now refer to as Aztecs actually referred to themselves as Mexica, which is where Mexico gets its name.
Interestingly, the members of the Lemurian League of Seven were all gods from Mesoamerican mythology. Or perhaps, they are misremembered as gods. They included Quetzalcoatl and Tezcatlipoca from Aztec Mythology, and Ixchel form Maya Mythology. The League of Seven has always been an international organization, so the mixing of Aztec and Maya deities is excusable. Though I was a bit surprised that the Maya hero twin Hunahpu and Xbalanque weren't members. Or perhaps they joined a different iteration of the League of Seven?
Also, if Lemuria was the forerunners of Mesoamerica, then presumably they left behind lot of steampunk tech like Atlantis did. And if that's the case, how did Mexico and Central America still get colonized by Spain? It is a bit disappointing that we never got to see what New Spain is like. Also, why does the Texas flag look the same as it does in our world? In our world, the Texas flag was model off of the American flag. In the Leagueverse, however, the flag of the United Nations of America looks like the Iroquois flag. So, logically, the Texas flag ought to look different as well, but I digress.
I should have mentioned this earlier, but the Republic of Texas comprises almost of our world's Texas. I say almost because Galveston is an independent city-state run by pirates. Oh, and it is completely underwater. A subaquatic city of glass domes and metal tubes. Galveston was founded by the pirate Jean Lafitte. As a result, the ruler of Galveston is known as The Lafitte. The primary inhabitants of Galveston are the Karankawa people. They're the indigenous inhabitants of Galveston Island. However, these Karankawa are a bit different from the ones in our world. They're seven feet tall on average, have grey skin, webbed hands, and gills; though they can breathe air just as well as water.
As soon as I read all of that, I joked to myself that the Karankawans must be related to the Deep Ones from the Lovecraft Mythos. Hey, there are a lot of references to the works of H.P. Lovecraft in the League of Seven books. Not long after that, it is mentioned that the Karankawa refer to the Mangleborn as the Deep Ones. Apparently, most Karankawa have a small amount of Deep One ancestry, hence their appearance.
It is in Galveston that Archie finds the final member of the League. She's a Karankawa girl named Martine. She's incredibly intelligent, especially when it comes to science and engineering. She has even designed her own submarine called The Kraken, which it looks like a giant squid. I usually describe The League of Seven series as a kid-friendly version of The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, but with original characters. I guess Martine is the Captain Nemo of the group. I always find submarines with a steampunk aesthetic to have a certain charm to them. It's a shame submarines don't appear more often in steampunk works. Perhaps, because submarines are something we have in our world, most authors don't consider them to have the same exotic romanticism as airships? But I digress.
Martine is also notable in that she has autism. Well, it is never stated outright, but it is heavily implied. She has trouble understanding emotions and social cues, she has very detail-oriented thinking, has a tendency to get hyper-focused on certain tasks, and can come across as a bit stoic and reserved. Martine also has synesthesia. It is a real-world condition where your senses get mix together. People with synesthesia might perceive numbers and letters as having different colors, or smells, or even tastes. Indeed, Martine describes letters, numbers, and symbols as having different colors and emotions attached to them. This comes in handy more than once a when the League has to navigate another puzzle trap.
It wasn't totally ignored, but shame that more wasn't made of Martine being autistic. Autistic kids, especially autistic girls, are still fairly rare in most media. It seems Martine might have been added later into Gratz's writing process. There is a scene in the first book where Archie gets a vision of the other League member. The descriptions of Kitsune and Clyde fit their eventually appearance, and Clyde even has Buster with him. Gonzalo looks more or less the same, and he has Señor X, though he's also wearing a turquoise Aztec mask that he lacks in this book. However, the final member is described as a white girl with brown hair; a marked contrast to tall, grey-skinned, Martine the Karankawan. Thanks to Martine we now have more than one Native American on the team. Also, her name is kind of a pun. Martine sounds like marine/maritime, as in, thing relating to the sea.
Martine has also found a way to harness aether. It can do pretty much anything electricity can do, but it functions under non-Euclidian geometry, so it is highly unstable. So, it usually only used as a weapon. However, Martine somehow found a way to tame the aether. Aether also has the bonus of not attracting the Mangleborn.
So, the League of Seven is united at last. Now, the hunt is on for Moffat and the Dragon Lantern. The first stop is Memphis, where we get several cameos from real world historical figures. Jesse James is back, and he's teamed up with Harriet Tubman and John Brown to bring tick-tocks to freedom in Acadia via the Underground Railroad. Oh, and did I mention the Underground Railroad is literally a railroad that runs underground? John Brown is a robot, but Harriet Tubman is a human who fights for the liberation of tick-tocks.
My problem with these cameos is that they don't really do anything interesting with the historical figures. They just pop in, say a few lines, and disappear from the plot. It reminds me of those Liberty Mutual ads that would play before The American Experience on PBS. There was the one with the animatronic Sacagawea who says "I'm Sacagawea, I helped Lewis and Clark discover the West. I'm Sacagawea, I helped Lewis and Clark discover the West." Or the one where the animatronic Paul Revere goes "I'm Paul Revere, one night in 1775 I warned everyone that the British are coming. I'm Paul Revere, one night in 1775 I warned everyone that the British are coming." The point being, there's more to American History, and American historical figures, than just these one sentence bits of trivia.
But I feel like Alan Gratz feel into that trap here. The scene with Harriet Tubman might as well have her going "Hey, look, I'm Harriet Tubman. Howdy, howdy, howdy! Oh, and John Brown is here too. Say hi, John! Well, goodbye now."
There's really not much point to the scene, other than to make the slavery parallel with the treatment of tick-tocks more obvious. Señor X even says that Lemuria collapsed as a result of a civil war over the rights of tick-tocks. You'd think that something more interesting could be done with someone Harriet Tubman. Alan Gratz was able to do interesting things in the previous book with historical figures like Marie Laveau and George Armstrong Custer.
We also get a cameo from Winchester Colbert. In our world, he was a member of the Chickasaw people who traveled the Trail of Tear. He went on to become an important tribal leader once the Chickasaw arrived in Oklahoma. In the world of the Leagueverse, however, the Trail of Tears never happened, and the Chickasaw remained in the ancestral homelands in Tennessee. Winchester Colbert is the mayor of Memphis as of 1876. You actually get a lot of cameos from less well-known historical figures. I wish Gratz had made more of them. One thing I liked about Scott Westerfeld's Leviathan trilogy was that each book ends with a section that explains what part were based in reality, and which parts were artistic license. Doing something similar with The League of Seven books would be a great way to introduce kids to lesser-known historical figures.
Moffit has created a Shadow League to oppose the League of Seven. The shadow leaguers include murders, thieves, and...William Tecumseh Sherman?! In the Leagueverse, he was a notorious arsonist who was sent to Alcatraz. Wait, if Sherman is from the United Nations, and Alcatraz is in the Republic of California, how does that work? Is Alcatraz the Leagueverse equivalent of Guantanamo Bay? Now, Sherman's famous March to the Sea could, I suppose, be categorized as a bit harsh. However, it also helped speed up the end of an incredibly brutal war. For reference, the American Civil War killed two percent of America's overall population. Oh, and you know, assuring a Union victory also ended slavery once and for all.
Some people say "But what about all the Southerners who suffered from Sherman's March?" And that I say, what about all of the African-Americans who suffered under the yoke of slavery? The fact remains, Sherman helped put an end of the horrors of slavery. Plus, the Confederates had it coming. Most of the historiography that paints Sherman as a monster tended to be written by pro-Confederate historians. The sort of people responsible for the myth of the Lost Cause. Thankfully, modern historians are reexamining Sherman in a more sympathetic light. As far as I'm concern, Sherman was a true American hero, and deserves to be remembered as such.
Well, anyway, getting back on track, the League splits up...again. I mean, I know they had their reasons, but it is repeatedly emphasized that the League is strongest when they're together. Archie, Hachi and Fergus got into numerous situations that could have been avoid if they'd stuck together in the last book. Also, Hachi killed everyone involved in the slaughter of her village. So, technically speaking, Hachi is a serial killer. Yet none of the characters ever bring this up, or object to her actions. I know they villains had it coming and all, but you'd think at least Clyde, being a lawman, would object to Hachi's methods.
Clyde and Fergus go back to Wichita, while Hachi and Martine go back to Standing Peace tree. Really? There's still plenty of interesting places left to explore, but instead we're retracting our footsteps? I was hoping we'd at least get to see the Navajo, or perhaps the Inuit.
Well, at least Kitsune and Gonzalo go to Shikaakwa, which you might know as Chicago. All the buildings of Shikaakwa are on hydraulic lifts to cope with flooding. The buildings are also connected to a massive grad that crisscrosses the city. This means the buildings can be moved around quite easily. So, when someone in Shikaakwa says "There goes the neighborhood!" they mean it literally. Still, gotta wonder how the plumbing and gas lines work with such buildings. Of course, steampunk tends to favor things that are cool over things that would actually work. In real life, most steampunk machine would require way too much fuel to actually function. There is a reason our world never developed steampunk tech.
I'll give points for having the Ametokai Strangler be made out of kudzu vines; that was genuinely clever. Kudzu is an invasive vine from Japan that is wreaking havoc on American ecosystems, particularly in the Southeast. One of the issues is that it, essentially, strangles native plants of the region. It was also nice to have more scenes of Gonzalo and Kitsune interacting with each other. Also, apparently the Shikaakwa Cubs are a thing, but they're a lacrosse team, rather than a baseball team.
Also, apparently the Leagueverse does use oil. However, they use it to light lamps, rather than for internal combustion engines. Well, I guess internal combustion does require an electric spark, and electricity is a no-no. That, and apparently oil is actually the blood of the Mangleborn. Guess that's why the Leagueverse is steampunk, rather than dieselpunk. On an unrelated note, why do some many of the Native Americans in the Leagueverse wear Western style clothing? By Western, I mean clothing white people would wear. If anything, you'd think it would be the other way around. Native Americans are implied to have a numeric majority over Yankees.
So, the titular Monster War happens, and the League of Seven links up with the United Nations at Gettysburg. Due to allohistroical irony, Robert E. Lee is leading the Union at an alternate Battle of Gettysburg. Lee is presented as far nicer than he was in real life. For example, he promotes Clyde to a captain, and compliments him on his excellent leadership skills. In real life, Lee would have whipped Clyde and told him that his name be Toby now. Lee even delivers an alternate version of The Gettysburg Address to rally the troops!
It is another Lost Cause myth that Lee was a kindly slave owner, and that he only joined the Confederacy out of loyalty to his home state of Virginia. Lee's personal letters make it crystal clear that he knew that the Confederacy was fighting to preserve slavery, and that this is why he joined them. Also, he was a terrible commander who regularly got his troops slaughtered. For example, during the Battle of Vicksburg, every man under Lee was either killed or captured. By contrast, Ulysses S. Grant got through the whole battle without losing a single man. Though, the fact that Lee is commanding so many Native American troops is accidentally accurate. In our world, the Five Civilized Tribes owned slaves and fought for the Confederacy.
Speaking of Native Americans, apparently the tribes are all fighting each other in a massive civil war...which we only know because Lee tells us so. We did get hints of this back in this first book, but that particular plot point got dropped up until this book. I mean, that's a pretty significant detail to ignore until just now. This is why it is important to show, not tell. Also, one of the monsters is a wendigo that has possessed an Inuit man. Slight problem, wendigo are from the mythology of the Algonquin peoples, not the Inuit.
Okay, now we're getting into the really spoiler stuff. So, if you don't want any of that, turn back now.
This is your last chance. Are you sure?
Okay, if everyone who wants out is gone, let's get into it.
There was one major bombshell early one in The Monster War that I've been leaving out til now. We know that Archie was created via a ritual carried out by Edison and Blavatsky. However, it turns out they got funding by some mysterious benefactors: the Septemberist Society! Archie was created as part of another attempt at making an artificial league. Archie and the other member of the League decide that they can't work for the Septemberists anymore after that. Hachi has found out about this, but she doesn't blame Archie. Well, actually, that's a lie. She's deeply resentful towards him, and convinces the other members of the League that he's too dangerous to be trusted. So, they keep blue amber from Dodge City on hand to encase Archie if he ever snaps.
Oh, and wouldn't you know it, Archie goes completely berserk and hulks out specifically because his friends didn't trust him. Now, granted, Archie has lost control of himself and gone on rampages in the past. However, if the rest of the League had just sat him down and explained their concerns, then maybe they could have avoided all of that. Especially if they got Mr. Rivets to act as the voice of reason. I suppose there's a message here about the importance of not keeping secrets and being honest.
I also kind of get what Gratz was trying to do with regards to Archie's origins. It didn't escape my notice that a bunch of Native Americans had to die for a white boy to live. The United States of America is a land of so much wealth, prosperity, and opportunity. And yet much of that prosperity was build atop the corpses of millions of indigenous peoples. But, like Archie, most of us didn't choose to be born into such a world. It's just the way the cards were dealt.
That having been said, I feel that things between Hachi and Archie could have been handled better. I understand that Hachi felt angry and all, but she let her grief consume her almost to fatal consequences. Worse, none of the other characters ever call her out on this. We all got shit to deal with. That's no excuse for dragging everyone else down. I feel like Rocket Raccoon in the first Guardians of the Galaxy movie; the part where he calls out Drax for letting his grief and desire for vengeance nearly kill everyone.
Hachi does sort of forgive Archie...possibly. She calms him down by having Kitsune create an illusion of all the men in Hachi's village saying they don't blame Archie for being born. The way it is written is kind of ambiguous. Did Hachi really forgive Archie, or was she only saying that to calm him down? Oh, and during all of this, Kitsune is barely hanging on after Archie impaled her with a harpoon. But she doesn't hold it again him, and she refuses to lay down and do nothing. She keeps pressing on to help calm Archie down. And that is why Kitsune is best girl.
Speaking of which, we finally learn her true origin. One of her ancestors was a kitsune, so occasionally members of her family are born with fox ears and tails. Her parents thought she was a monster and abandoned her, but her kindhearted grandmother raised her in a cabin in the woods. Well, at least until Kitsune was about eight, and grandma died. Kitsune was pretty much on her own until she met Archie and the League. She masks a great sadness with her mischievous personality. But she isn't sad, because the League is her family now. Will somebody please give best girl a hug for me?
So, Moffit is defeated once and for all. You'll have to read the book if you want the specifics on that. She was completely insane, but she had a point about the Septemberists being untrustworthy. Ultimately, Moffit was a tragic villain. She was born a monster, but the Septemberists made her into one. So, the League decide to operate in the open from now on, and reveal the truth about the Mangleborn to the United Nations of America. Oh, and they're dissolving the Septemberists Society, effective immediately, and placing the leaders of the Septemberists under arrest for the kidnapping and forced medical experimentation of countless children.
Well, I guess this does somewhat mitigate the positive portrayal of Robert E. Lee earlier in the book. Hopefully, Lee will be rotting in prison for a very long time. Although, Fredrick Douglas is also a member of the Septemberist Council. Thus, one of the great American heroes in our world was an evil child kidnapping monster in the Leagueverse. Well, he was complacent in such activities, at any rate. Also, Hellcat Maggie is a member of the Septemberists Council. In our world, she was a member of the Dead Rabbits, an Irish street gang based in Manhattan. She was a fighter who wore brass claws on her fingers and filed her teeth to sharp points.
So, justice is served, the truth is finally revealed, and our heroes get a ticker tape parade in their honor. Well, except Archie. He's sulking in the shadows inside the float. He doesn't think he deserves to be a hero because of what he is. He is still convinced he'll always be a monster. Worse, Archie speculates that he not only has the strength of 100 men, but also all of their lifespans too. Meaning, potentially, Archie will live for over 8,000 years. Oh, but don't worry, Mr. Rivets assures Archie that he'll always have him.
Does Archie decide to quiet being so mopey and join his friends in the celebration? Nope! We end with him still sulking in the dark, bitter about how nobody understands him. I mean, wow, that's really the note we're going to end the series on? Archie, serious question, were you even paying attention to what Kitsune told you? Pretty much everyone in the League, except Gonzalo and possibly Martine, lost their family in one way or another. But that doesn't matter. You guys are a family now. You wanted to be the Percy Jackson, but you wound up as the Nico di Angelo of the team. Less than ideal, maybe, but end of the world? Not even close. On that note, nobody rejected you, you rejected yourself. Ugh, where's Will Solace when you need him?
Maybe you will outlive your friends, but that doesn't mean the time you have with them matters less. If anything, it is all the more valuable because it might end. So, get off your stone ass and go be in that ticker tape parade with your family, by Hiawatha! And hey, you've still got Mr. and Mrs. Dent. They kind of disappeared after the first book, but you've still got them...unless they were arrested with the other Septemberists.
I know Alan Gratz has written some short stories set in the world of The League of Seven. I really do hope he does consider revisiting the Leagueverse, because as it stands, it has ended on way too depressing of a note for my taste.
I know I sounds like I've been rather critical, but on the whole I did enjoy The Monster War. It was a very gripping and engaging story with great worldbuilding and characters. I was never bored, and I was always eager to see what came next. Sure, it has its flaws, but so do the other books in the series. Taking the overall experience into account, I found it an enjoyable book, and would be more than happy to recommend it. I'll also plug the audiobook version one final time.
So, what are my overall thoughts about The League of Seven series. Overall, I did enjoy it. I think it is a great series for introducing alternate history to kids. I also appreciated that it remembered that Native Americans are a thing exist. Though, I do feel that Gratz didn’t do quite enough to make all the tribes more than just names on a page. Still, the series has very interesting worldbuilding, and great characters. My biggest complaint is that three books, at roughly 336 pages each, simply wasn't enough to explore this incredibly interesting world in full. Gratz tried to pack as much as he could into each book, but things jump around so much, we never get enough time to really explore the different stops on the journey. Well, for the most part anyway. That's why I'm really hoping we get more books, or at least short stories, set in the world of The League of Seven.
But on the whole, I find The League of Seven a welcome addition to the alternate history genre. So, there you have it. We reviewed The Monster War, and our time with The League of Seven is at an end. It is a somewhat flawed, but highly entertaining read. Hey, sometimes a speckled axe is best of all, as Benjamin Franklin famously observed.
Well, that should do it from me for now. I will see you guys next time.
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