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OBLIVION - hb jacket

Oblivion is the final installment in the Power of Five Series by Anthony Horowitz. This final book of the series involves the Five Gatekeepers trying to find each other once more to once again banish the Old Ones from the Earth. It was released on October 4, 2012 in the United Kingdom.

Background Information[]

According to Anthony Horowitz, the final book is about the Old Ones attempting to destroy the world through global warming, and it deals with the Gatekeepers trying to find each other again after being separated in Necropolis. On Twitter, in reply to a fan, he revealed that Oblivion would be about terrorism, over-population, resurgent fascism, and global warming. The book is therefore split into five different sections: Earth, Fire, Water, Ice and Air, relating to Matt, Pedro, Scott, Jamie and Scarlett respectively.

The organization of the book through elements was not used in the final edition, however. Furthermore, the character of Sarah Kate/Scout who was shown in the teaser Chapter 1 had her name changed, and became Holly.

Chapters[]

This is the only book where the chapters are only titled by their numbers and they are not noted in the contents page, instead the contents table is noted by the 11 parts titled as such:

Part I-The Village (pages 9-87, chapters 1-7)

Part II-Endgame :The Conference (pages 87-115, chapters 8-10)

Part III-Blood and Sand (pages 115-181, chapters 11-16)

Part IV-The Tree (pages 181-263, chapters 17-22)

Part V-Matt (pages 263-304, chapters 23-25)

Part VI-Wheel Of Fortune (pages 305-359, chapters 26-30)

Part VII-Legacy 600 (pages 359-403, chapters 31-34)

Part VIII-Dark water (pages 403-485, chapters 35-40)

Part IX-The Good Priest (pages 485-525, chapters 41-44)

Part X-Oblivion (pages 525-657, chapters 45-56)

Part XI-Envoi (pages 657-668, chapter 57)

Plot Summary[]

After the events of Necropolis, the five Gatekeepers have ended up all over the world, as well as having jumped ten years into the future in a world of terrorism, war and famine.

Jamie Tyler ends up in a village in England presumably called St. Botolphs that have isolated themselves from the world. Here he meets a new character, Holly who is a protagonist throughout the book and most of her parts, as well of this whole part is written in the first person, instead of the rest, being in third person. After Jamie is caught in the village, a meeting is called and the village is torn on wether they shall call the police or let him stay. They leader of the village opens an envelope revealing a note for a reward and the pictures of five children, to which jamie is one of them. When they are about to cast the deciding vote, a mysterious man called The Traveller interrupts the meeting and demands them not to call the police, and Jamie stays in the village for a while. However, the school teacher, Miss Anne Keyland selfishly calls the police to collect the reward to herself. When the police arrive and Hooly's carer, Rita explain how they left, they kill the whole village. As they try to escape the village the Traveller comes and takes them on the boat and they escape.

Scarlett ends up with Richard Cole in Egypt and get to Cairo with the help of Albert Remy of the Nexus. The Cairo they enter into is constantly shrouded in a sandstorm and ruled by a ruthless leader, serving the Old Ones called Field Marshall Karim El-Akkad. After defying the resistance leader, Tarik, who asks her to drown his enemy with her powers, he secretly uses her by saying that they will travel on a land rover to Dubai, as Remy is supposed to have said that he had seen plays there a few years ago. Instead of this he plans to use Richard and Remy as suicidal weapons to kill his enemy, by planting bombs in the car they would be driving in. However, Richard has secretly switched around the Jeeps so Tarik would be travelling in the one with the bomb. When they reach their destination they are met by a disguised Field Marshall claiming that is is "all over for you [Scarlet and Richard] . Tarik sets off the bomb and blows him and his allies up and are presumed dead. Scarlett uses her powers to defeat the Field Marshall and his small army, steal their land rover and head to Dubai. Remy is badly wounded by the Old Ones and dies on the way to Dubai.

Scott and Pedro end up in San Galago, Italy and are captured by the Old Ones and taken prisoner at the Castel Nuovo in Naples. Scott is taken and tortured by Jonas Mortlake, where he is treated with luxuries at the expense of joining them, otherwise he would be tortured akin to how his mother had in Nightrise and eventually joins the Old Ones, flying from Italy to Oblivion, Antarctica, where Chaos, King of the Old Ones, is preparing to make a last stand. Meanwhile, Pedro escapes through the sewers and some refugees save him from the volcano Vesuvius and take him to Rome, so that he can get to Oblivion through a door.

Matt ends up in Brazil withLohan , who sells him as a slave three times for money and rescues him. Before the events of this part, Lohan has sold him to low-security farms where he has retrieved him easily. This third time he is sold to a drug lord and is suspected to have been bought either to have been a drug mule or to be tested on. He escapes and Lohan finds him and tells him to go to the dream world. Matt goes into the dream-world as commanded and reads about his future in the Library and how he will die.

Scarlet and Richard eventually reach the city after many days but find the city deserted. In Dubai, Scarlett and Richard go to the airport, where a jet was supposed to be waiting to take them to Antarctica, and find one plane, where they meet the co-pilot, Zach Martins but whose pilot has been captured stealing from the palace of a mad sheikh and will be executed. Scarlett and Richard go to a casino, where people, once famous, are 'gambling to live'. Scarlett gambles $5,000 and picks the number 5, because she knew from the dream world. The sheikh asks her to be his wife while she is having dinner with him and threatens that Richard will be executed if she doesn't. She escapes with Richard and saves the pilot. They are pursued but Scarlett uses her powers to escape. Once they reach the plane they are almost captured by the Sheikhs forces but barely manage to fly away, the part ends with them flying to Antarctica.

Lohan and Matt try to do the same trick a fourth time but the plan backfires and are captured and both taken as slives at a gold mine. Matt and Lohan are there for a week but on the eighth day Matt falls ill. On the morning of the ninth day, they set into the jungle to try and find the Legacy 600 plane they had seen to get them out of here. Lohan almost betrays Matt and tries to leave without him to go to America, but Matt stops him and Matt controls the plane to go to Antarctica.

Jamie, Holly and the Traveler have escaped on a canal boat and reach a village where they are greeted by canniballs, where Graham is captured but they escape. Before they can leave the village, the police show up and injure Graham, but using Jamie's power they escape. They are almost captured again in a tunnel but narrowly escape into a 'pod' where they are congratulated by the Nexus. However, Jamie has been told by Matt, in the dream world, that he must go into St. Meredith's church and that he will be signaled to go through the door at the right time, but that they have been locked by Chaos.

Meanwhile, Pedro ends up in Rome with Carla, and his son who is a cardinal at the Vatican. He is skeptical at first but once he sees Pedro use his powers he agrees to help by sneaking him into the Vatican and getting him to the doors. However, the Cardinal poisons him claiming that he cannot be the one to save the world that it must be the christian diety. The Cardinal dies, however Pedro barely survives.

Matt meets David Cain, leader of the World Army, who attack Oblivion in an airstrike and then by land. Despite the airstrike seeming to cause a lot of damage, it is just an illusion created by the Old Ones and a huge massacre starts. Seeing this, Matt splits the ice so that the entire army is not killed. Matt is then sent a message by Scott to meet him alone. Despite knowing that this is a trick, he reluctantly allows Richard to accompany him. Fly-soldiers capture Matt, while he tells Scott that he knew that he knew he would be betrayed.

Jamie is sent a hazy message in a dream by Matt that it is time to go to St. Meredith's and Holly gets shot in the hand but they make it through the door. Pedro does the same through the Vatican door. As this is happening, Jonas attacks Scott and he sacrifices himself to open the door so the others can arrive, but sadly, he dies in the process. Matt is taken prisoner and is beaten up by the old ones and is set to watch Richard die, but with The Tumi, Richard kills him and escapes the fortress. Chaos comes to defeat the three of the five that remain (Scarlett, Pedro and Jamie) but are soon assisted by the Old Matt and Flint. Holly tries to shoot Chaos with a gun but to no avail. The five then stab chaos in the heart, as they did 10,000 years ago and he dies. They build a third and final gate at Antarctica and Matt believes that the Old Ones have been kept from the world for good. After the battle, they hold a small funeral for Matt and Scott and have a meal cooked by Lohan. Matt reveals that Richard, Holly and Lohan will go on a boat back to Europe and the rest of the Five will go somewhere but it is not disclosed where. They walk off into the sunset before the remaining three can say goodbye.

Holly narrates the final chapter, chapter fifty-seven in the final part of the book, Envoi. Holly explains that they sailed to France and Lohan decided to travel back to the East. Holly says that they never hear from him again but is presumed to have gotten back safe. They go back to Britain in a village not too far from the one Holly grew up in and settled down where she had a husband, four children and 11 grandchildren. She reveales that whilst writing the book she is 70 years old and her and Richard are both alive safe. Richard married late into life and has one son, the Traveller married his friend Sophie. Their settelment is stated to have grown.

Holly then reveals that both the old and new five went to the dreamworld, and that both Holly and Richard go there frequently. Matt has stated that they both will go there once they die. The woman seen by the old Scarlet turns out to be a mother figure to all of the five, being the mother to whoever sees her. Holly is quoted to have said "The first scar-the one who lived then thousand years ago-had once said she had met a strange woman in the dreamworld, but none of the other gatekeepers had seen her before. And here's the strange thing. There was one woman but she looked different to each and every one of them. To Pedro, she was Peruvian,small and olive-skinned. To Scarlet she was Indonesian. Flint and Jamie saw her as Native American. And Matt saw her in a pink jacket and a white linen dress, on a way to a wedding-just as she had been long ago. His mother. A mother to all of them. That was what she was and it was as if the five had become one."

Trivia[]

  • This book is the longest by far, being 668 pages compared to the others, being all between roughly 250-400 pages.
  • This is the only book to contain 1st person narrative, with 1st person narrative from a character called Holly. The parts with 1st erson perspective are Part I, part VIII (apart from the first chapter), small sections of part X and part XI. It is also alluded in part XI that the 3rd person perspective of this book (and possibly the whole book series) is a retelling of events by Holly.
  • Some of the locations of this book all make up a five pointed star (Italy, Antarctica, Brazil, Dubai, New York).
  • This is the only book in the series not a retelling of the Pentagram Series, an unfinished book series from Horowitz in the 80's, which the first 4 books are a rework of.
  • This is the only book set in the future, as it is set in (presumably) November-December 2018, with this book being released in October 2012.
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