Yeah - I'm starting not to like Annie. Or perhaps it's Harold Gray. Four stories; the first one is (most of) Tik Tok the World's Greatest Cartoonist - if this is as autobiographical as the foreword thinks it is, Gray had serious self-esteem issues. Tik Tok is a braggart and a fool - I really can't tell if he's actually that stupid, about Pat and about his "friends", or if he's just scared to admit the truth. Or what. Annie is also a) pretty much a cipher - she does a lot of eye-rolling and "Oh bruthuuur"ing, but doesn't actually act, or even talk directly to Tik Tok. And the one time she really lights in to him about spending three times what he's hoping to make...he buys her some stuff and that makes her so happy she cries and stops bugging him. Sheesh! This story started in the last book and concludes here - in the usual way, her latest family disappears/dies/?. Annie's off wandering, fearing an attack (which has actually been dealt with - by Punjab, I suppose, big feet). She finds another family, small town this time (city, town, city, town...). The town's more or less under the thumb of a political boss, who takes what he wants, uses subtle (and not so subtle) threats to enforce it, and bribes and smarms most of the unthinking citizens into thinking he's a good guy. His opponent is Joe Christmas...yet another slightly mysterious, outsider, Christ figure man. There's a lot in this story about mob rule vs rule of law - a really heavy-handed MORAL, repeated over and over, with several scenes of mobs, including one where Annie's current "father" is part of one and regrets it afterward. Gaws, the political boss, gets really careless and stupid in trying to get rid of Joe; the moral is repeated, and Gaws manages to get dead (helped, admittedly, by Punjab. But not direct action). Oh yes, and Warbucks is back, directed to Annie by Mr. Am (who shows up only long enough to be a deus ex machina a couple times). Then a shortish story with Annie and Warbucks dealing with the takeover of a house that was apparently a secret headquarters for Warbucks. The takeover was masterminded by...oh bl**y, it's Axel again. And Warbucks is too good a man to actually kill an enemy, he'd rather leave him able to still attack. Warbucks claims he's just too busy to bother hating someone, but...serious change of personality, there. So Warbucks has to run off, leaving Annie to go to school - and unsurprisingly, Axel gets loose and tries to snatch her. So Annie goes running off again - and when she lands in a city that she knows Axel is in too, she cheerfully finds a place to settle down. Arrgh! Where's clever Annie? Talk about a personality change. Yet another sequence of Axel planning for a Day of Destruction, with lots of homegrown (or foreign? Max is called both) terrorists planning how there will be a "real democracy" with them on top. And again, Axel is sent off unharmed. Heck, he survives the attentions of a practiced murderer...a mere tramp steamer isn't going to hold him, especially one filled with his people. End.

I'm sorry, this isn't fun any more. Annie has completely lost her smarts - she's alternately a cipher and onlooker (she did almost nothing with Tik Tok, and was only a convenient hostage in the takeover) or a busybody and nuisance (she tells tales to start things happening, but doesn't actually act herself). She no longer remembers how to make a home on not much money (she _can_, but give her any money and she'll happily blow it on luxuries); she doesn't even remember how to run when an enemy is near. The messages are waaaaay too heavy-handed. And the stories are utterly repetitive - oh look, Annie's gone to a town and found a family. Next she'll go to a city and find a family. A magic man will show up - Am or someone else, or both. Axel will show up and chase her, but she'll get away; Warbucks will be declared dead and return. Again. And again. And again. I'm not going to bother to buy any more of these books. I'd still like to read them - find them in a library, maybe - but they're not worth my money any more. ( )