BIONICLE® Adventures #5: Voyage of Fear picks up the tale of the TOA METRU after the major events of the BIONICLE 2: Legends of Metru Nui movie, also chronicled in the BIONICLE Adventures #4: Legends of Metru Nui book. This review has no outright spoilers for the movie, but it is impossible to discuss this book without revealing some of its major plot points. Warning: Spoilers Follow!

Like the other Adventures , this tale is told on Mata Nui with a prelude and epilogue taking place there. The most interesting aspect of the telling of this adventure is that the narrator is TURAGA NOKAMA, not the absent TURAGA VAKAMA. VAKAMA does return at the end of the tale to set up the next book.

The story is not an exact replica of The Island of Doctor Moreau by H. G. Wells (the first story that jumped into my mind after finishing this book), but it will be familiar to anyone who has ever read or seen a story centered about a mad scientist. The TOA METRU are seeking a new place to live. Along the way, they discover a place of many previously unknown Rahi creatures. There they find many perils, plots, twists, and turns.

The action is often fast and furious. Because the TOA METRU spend most of the voyage together, the text is often convoluted as we are kept abreast of the thoughts and deeds of all six. Nobody gets short-changed, except perhaps for the narrative thread every now and again.

This Adventure is notable in that no previous book has quite so much death in it as this one. And, unlike Mask of Light , the dead stay that way. Just ask the Makuta fish from which TOA NOKAMA uses its bones to make her trident.

Speaking of the Makuta fish, long-time BIONICLE fans will appreciate the many nods to the saga’s future history. Most are quite humorous. I burst out laughing when TOA NOKAMA stated that they won’t be keeping any more secrets!

Like The Darkness Below before it, Voyage of Fear is an entertaining diversion which does little to actually move the story forward. There is one caveat however: something happens during the voyage which will almost certainly have an impact later on in the series. Forum Link