Atrus returns to the D'Ni ruins to rebuild, but first he searches the ages to find survivors willing to return. Scouring the ruins he locates the books his father didn't manage to destroy. From these come D'Ni who are willing to leave the lives they've built in other ages to come and rebuild their once great city. Then they find a secret chamber and a new library with more books than they ever imagined. Through one of these they find Terahnee, a beautiful place with a dark secret beneath, and a place which Atrus and and the D'Ni will prove to be both the destruction and salvation of. In Terahnee, Atrus sees the fulfillment of his father's desires, a fulfillment thousands of years old. This horror is only surpassed by the realization that the illness sweeping through Terahnee has been brought by him and his own people, that a microorganism common among his people is the cause of the deaths of thousands of people. In the end he helps the survivors bring about a new order to their world, then leaves, closing again the great library and the link between the two worlds.
Impression: While I still liked The Book of Ti'Ana better, I think this comes as a close second in the trilogy. It was a bit harder of a read in the sense that early in the book I knew something wasn't right, but the tension of that knowing wasn't high enough to keep me motivated to read. Once the dark secret of Terahnee was revealed and the sickness started to sweep through the nation, the story became more intense and kept my attention better. In another turn of bittersweet, Atrus helps set the survivors on the path to build a new society without the slavery of the past, and then chooses to leave them to become what they will become.
On another side note, reading this and the other books of the trilogy give a new light to the Myst games. I've begun to play again (having never managed to complete one yet), and suddenly understand quite a bit I didn?t before. Game play is still as difficult, but the experience is very different.
