Paul Park’s Roumania series has finally reached an end with far less fanfare than with which it began. Along the way it has slowly transformed from an ingenious fantasy in which our world was merely a fantasy conjured by a sorceress from the real world, to an alternate world fantasy which is not that different to a fantasy set in our world. The Hidden World is still a great book, but I can’t help thinking that Park lost his way somewhere in the process. Which is a shame, because A Princess of Roumania was magnificent, and Nicola Ceausescu is one of my all time favorite villains. I think that fantasy tends to trip over itself if it becomes too accepting of its own weirdness. Sometimes Park gets it right. Clara Brancoveanu’s confusion over what is happening to her daughter is entirely believable, and Miranda grows into her power very nicely. But the relaxed manner in which everyone seems to accept that Lt. Prochenko and Andromeda Bailey are the same person and are a werewolf seemed to stretch things for me. On the other hand, I still enjoyed the book, and I’d still prefer it to any number of formula fantasy series, so I shouldn’t complain.