Gr 5-8-Since coming to the Outskirts, Cole Randolph and his friends have defeated monsters, challenged knights, fought psycho robots, lost powers, and helped Mira and some of her sisters get their powers back. While traveling through Necronum in search of Mira's sisters Destiny and Honor, Cole and his friends have been trying to stay one step ahead of Nazeem, an evil shapecrafter. Disaster soon strikes, however, and Cole's friends are forcibly taken to the Echolands (land of the dead), the lands controlled by Nazeem. If Cole ever wants to get home, he must find a way to stop Nazeem. Keith Nobbs's dynamic, engaging narration style draws listeners into Cole's world. He easily transitions between action and dialogue scenes while maintaining a good pace. Mull's plot and characters are well developed and will make listeners want to find out what happens next. VERDICT Series fans will have a hard time putting this audiobook down.-Kira Moody, Whitmore Public Library, Salt Lake City © Copyright 2016. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Hero Cole Randolph returns in this fourth of a a planned five books, this time adventuring in the unstable and terrifying land of Necronum. Filled with echoes, ghosts, shades, and enemies, Necronum is different from everything Cole knows, and as he searches for information about the whereabouts of friends Honor and Destiny, Cole and his crew finds more than they bargained for. Cole, at a loss without his magical powers, has some soul-searching to do, as well. Intrigue and chills build higher as the group seeks out the Cave of Memory for answers while trying to follow clues from Queen Harmony. Equally as compelling as the adventure is the development of interpersonal relationships between Cole and his band of friends. Cole continues to be the everykid champion, and he remains one of the most enduring reasons readers return to this engrossing series. Series fans are already begging for this hotly anticipated title; multiple copies are a must.--Comfort, Stacey Copyright 2016 Booklist

Cole's ongoing quest to rescue friends and find four lost princesses in the dreamlike Outskirts takes him to a land where the border between life and death is permeable.Gaining and losing various allies and princesses as he goes, Cole journeys through both Necronum, populated by the living and also spectral "echoes," and the "echolands," a sort of borderland halfway house for the dead, on the way to a face-off with the demonic shapecrafter Nazeem. As if the cast wouldn't already fill a bus, Mull trots in even more charactersincluding some from his Beyonders seriesas he pushes his young hero into a drawn-out series of chases and races both afoot and atop a mysterious magical horse. The author spins a big, fluent, not entirely earnest yarn, but he seems to be stuck on certain plot devices. Infodumps (along with side topics like the meaning of life), for instance, are repeatedly delivered through extended question-and-answer sessions that read like magazine interviews, and so often does Cole hear some variation on "I don't know, but I can tell you who might," that even he finally slaps his forehead: "No offense, but do you know how many times I've heard this?" But, by the end Nazeem has been temporarily stymied, Cole has acquired shapecrafting powers of his own, and the ducks are queuing for the upcoming climax.Much rushing about from here to there in this penultimate brick, but it's basically a smooth ride to the closer. (Fantasy. 10-13) Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.