Third novel The Cobra King of Kathmandu from the Children of the Lamp series will bring us to the hot country of India, where not just cobras are the biggest threat for the adventurous djinn siblings.
We start the story with a throwback into the past of a young djinn possessing the prime minister of United Kingdom, and Nimrod coming to rescue before any dangerous and unchangeable things can happen. We also have a short explanation why Layla and Nimrod grown distant after the birth of the twins. I appreciated this part, since it disturbed the monotonous storyline. It was bit refreshing and we also got some other stories from djinn universe. It was clear, that the part with the young djinn in the beginning will be essential to this plot.
I found it disappointing from Nimrod and from Layla as well, that both of them took just their own feelings into consideration and not those of their sibling. They lost many happy years as siblings together, and also the twins lost the time with their uncle. On the other hand, the author is receiving a plus point for creating a happy marriage between Layla and her husband. Literally an example of opposite attraction between two people. They led a harmonic and loving household with a huge touch of safety for their children. I appreciate that, because it is giving the young readers an illustration of a happy family. Many authors decide to prioritize an incomplete family, where one parent is absent or missing. This book was more concentrated on the development of children mindset, intellect and knowledge. The twins were meeting with life dilemmas that gave them the opportunity to think about their own life choices, their meaning and also how they can help the society to improve. It is a good triggering point for young adults. It was followed by small facts, like the main city of Nepal, in which country is Mount Everest located, which I find bit educational. It was not just all about fantasy. Even the vocabulary is evolving with the number of the book in the series.
The plot of the series was good, again, it took us into visiting a hot continent with some historical facts and persons. The life of Dybbuk is really not ease and this book was not kind to his character. Many people died because of him. His inner fight between good and bad djinn gens will have to be revealed in the following stories, not to mention the fate of his older sister. The twins are a good constant duo working on their powers and openness to help their family and friends. They did not deserve to come home and find out their mother left them to protect Philippa and take over the role of the Blue Djinn.
As we continue with the book, the brutality is also proportionally developing. A quite number of people died. That can be a life lesson, life is always followed by death. But the way how the Guru ended was a too detailed description for young adults. One does not expect something like this from this kind of book. If we look onto it from another perspective, the Guru was described as a villain so not many readers would be missing or crying over his persona in the novel. To sum it up, it was so far the best book in the series, where the hidden meanings were taking over the plot, but the characters did not suffer on personal development.