This is developing well; I find this to be much more enjoyable than "The Promise". ( )

There's something about serial fiction that always manages to throw a spanner in my works. I either end up reading things out of order or I think I've written the next review and just as I'm set to write the last one, I find that I never did get around to writing the previous review. And yet if I try to review an entire series, even a trilogy, as a single thing, I feel like I'm leaving something out or that I'm rushing through my thoughts.

Avatar: The Last Airbender: The Search, Part 2 by Gene Luen Yang is the most recent series book to fall through the cracks of my brain. Here's the thing. I LOVE LOVE LOVE the Avatar series, both the original one and The Legend of Korra. After reading the omnibus of Avatar: The Last Airbender: The Promise, I went ahead and preordered the three pieces of The Search, released over the course of 2013.

Part 2, is told in a mixture of flashbacks (rendered in sepia tones) and present day sleuthing by Zuko, Aang, Katara, Sokka, and the unpredictable Azula. They've arrived at Ursa's home village but rumors have it she and her original boyfriend disappeared into the nearby Forgetful Valley.

There are three questions that prompt the search for Zuko and Azula's mother. Part 1 answers the first question: Where did she go? Part 2 answers the second: Why did she go? Part 3: answers the final one: What became of her?

Along the way, Zuko and Azula's rocky family situation is expanded and given context. While Ozai isn't completely cleared for his behavior during the war, it is explained. He wasn't the monster we were led to believe, though he was clearly a very troubled individual. ( )