I was really looking forward to these books having never read them with my children and seen the film a few years ago. I started of really liking the style of writing in this series but to be honest reading them all back to back was probably a mistake. I got bored and then just wanted the story to speed up and the explanations, asides and anecdotes which I enjoyed at the start began to annoy me as I felt they slowed the story further. The ending was disappointing and left a lot of unanswered questions leaving me feeling I'd read an awful lot for nothing. Could have been a lot better after a very promising start