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[katara]

Title: Jim Henson's Labyrinth: Coronation #8
Author: Simon Spurrier, Ryan Ferrier, Daniel Bayliss (Illustrator), Irene Flores (Illustrator), Dan Jackson (Illustrator), Fiona Staples (Illustrator)
Format: Epub
Rating: 4.9/5
Status: Finished
Reading Date: November 15, 2018
Book Summary: While Maria and her companions seek refuge among the Goblin rebellion, the Owl King’s plan takes a dangerous step forward bringing the second arc to a stunning conclusion.
Book Review: This story opens with Maria and her ragtag group coming down a ladder as Cible is surrounded by members of the rebellion. Cible has announced that Bunderghast the Invincible is here! This gains the goblins attention but also sends them to murmur rumors amongst themselves. Maria boosts the little catepillar up and Cible claims that it is she that is Bunderghast. Unfortunately this does not seem to impress any of the goblins. Realizing that hasn't worked, Cible makes the claim that Maria is a wizard. Maria makes a crevasse with her chalk which seems to impress the goblins immensely before they decide now is the time for some ale. Add in Tangle for some hugs and you have a bit of a chaos.

Cible has a quiet moment of disappointment. She tried to get the revolution started but it seems to have stalled at this point. Maria admits the same thing...admitting that she done the same thing in the past. She goes on to advise that have to know who you are before you allow yourself to become someone else.

Skubbin, on the other hand, has wandered off. He doesn't want to betray Maria as she has been a wonderful friend to him. A mosaic face appears and taunts Skubbin about his duties and that he cannot avoid them. It is then that Maria finds him and tells him of how she misses her old life of wealth and privilege but nothing like the feeling she has of missing her son.

We return to Jareth where we are given a brief glimpse of what Sarah is up to and apparently she has eaten the forbidden fruit of the peach. He is thrilled that he is about to ruin Sarah as he lays Toby back down in what looks like

The scene changes to Beetleglum showing up and warning that the King is coming. First Septimus appears and chaos begins. Cible urges an attack against him, which in turn caused confusion allowing both Skubbin and Maria to leave.

Maria sees a bright light up ahead of them but Skubbin tells her that it is a trap. He urges her back into the water where the gondolier awaits them. Skubbin pays for her passage just as the Owl King shows up and announces what a good son he has.

Maria sees this as a betrayal and runs into the light.....and right into a drawing room. She is finely dressed and surrounded by the wealthy. And Albert appears with a mask in hand and tells her that feels horrible for the way he has treated her...and that here they are together forever.


This story is now picking up steam as we are coming close to the final chapters of this series. Currently it seems that Maria is in the same sort of position that Sarah is in at the moment. Both are about to face a part of this game that will either make or break them. We know how Sarah's story turns out but not really anything of Maria's. Of course this is a dream. Maria spoke briefly of how much she has missed her life previously filled with wealth and power, something had not had growing up.

So how will all this lead to Maria's failure? This has yet to be seen but we know that Skubbin will have to do a lot to make up for what she has seen as a betrayal. This again seems to echo what Hoggle has done to Sarah when he gifted her the peach. So there is much parallel between Maria and Sarah with the exception of Sarah being jealous of her brother and Albert pretty much selling his son to the Owl King.

This story really is starting to shape up and I am quite looking forward to seeing how this all tidies up.