Ending of The Pursuit of The Foe – Review of KOMET MINOR by Tere Liye

Tsamaratul Bakhitah
May 1, 2023
5 min read

Updated: Jun 8, 2023

Title: KOMET MINOR

Author: Tere Liye

Publishing House: Gramedia Pustaka Utama

Published Year: 2019

Number of Pages: 376

Rating: 4.7/5

“… Hanya karena sesuatu itu terlihat buruk, tidak otomatis jadi buruk betulan. Pun sebaliknya, hanya karena sesuatu terlihat baik, tidak otomatis memang baik sesungguhnya. Mungkin saja ada hikmah yang tersembunyi, yang tidak kita pahami. Biarlah dunia parallel menjaga keseimbangannya.” (“… Just because something looks bad, it doesn't automatically turn out to be really bad. On the other hand, just when something looks good, it doesn't automatically mean it's actually good. Maybe there is a hidden wisdom, which we do not understand. Let the parallel world maintain its balance.”) - Uncle Kay – KOMET MINOR, Tere Liye (page 366)

Are you ready to be back to the tiring, yet remarkable adventure with The Three (Raib, Seli, and Ali)? If your answer is yes, it is your time to go back along with them on the mission to pursue their big enemy, The Uncrowned Man. This novel, entitled KOMET MINOR is the straight continuation of their adventure in Komet Clan. The mission is to prevent the Uncrowned Man to get the powerful heirloom to conquer the entire universes. At this time, as The Three had found the portal toward Komet Minor Clan, they involved Batozar to join their trip and help the mission.

The Three and Batozar, who was notified by Ali in the urgent time, followed The Uncrowned Man and landed on Komet Minor Clan. Even though they fought against The Uncrowned Man at first, they succeeded in running away from him and started wandering the clan to seek the powerful heirloom before the enemy got it first. They first had to rove the wildlife of Komet Minor Clan which fulfilled with unimaginable big-sized insects and strange creatures. They also faced giant worms that suffered Seli by its poison.

After exploring the wildlife, the team arrived at one of the residential towns of the clan and met siblings named ST4R and SP4RK who came from Proxima Centauri Clan. The siblings told them more information about the clan through hologram technology. Through his browsing, Batozar got the first direction to meet someone called Entre. Entre was first depicted as a nonchalant man, but he then changed his mind to give some information to The Three after witnessing their warm friendship.

Armed with Entre’s information and story, The Three went to a place called Gray Tower in Far Mountain to see Arci, Entre’s friend, who kept the first piece of the heirloom. However, their journey was not simple at all. They needed to head thousands of ancient lizards’ attacks and deal with the ‘warning’ arrow attack when approaching Arci’s tower. They needed to pass the test from Kulture, the holder of the second piece who turned her life into a public figure named Lady Oopraah. Not only that but their way of getting the pieces of heirloom was also blocked twice by The Uncrowned Man who was too powerful to fight against. That foe also snatched the heirloom pieces and nearly killed them. Nevertheless, there was still one piece of heirloom kept by Finale. Would Raib and the team get to meet Finale and prevent The Uncrowned Man to form the pieces into an unbeatable heirloom spear? Who are actually Entre, Kulture, Arci, and Finale and what is the history behind the heirloom which makes it so exalted?

KOMET MINOR is the seventh book of the series that ended the journey of The Three running mission to fight their enemy, The Uncrowned Man. KOMET MINOR explained all things that might have not been answered in the previous books. All plot and structure of the story have also been told well. Not only good at describing the setting, but Tere Liye is also great to put foreshadowing effect in most of the scenes. This is the first strength I mainly noticed here. He even put the hint of foreshadowing in a very unrealizable scene; readers barely pay attention to it although it is linked to the surprisingly helpful moment at the end of the story.

Besides the understandable plot, Tere Liye’s characterisation never fails in presenting any characters that appear. Tere Liye’s depiction of all new characters strengthens and supports the story. What I mostly pointed out in this novel is that Tere Liye revealed more about Batozar who was previously shown in CEROS DAN BATOZAR. Accompanying The Three on this journey as a loyal and great ally, Batozar was depicted as the new friend and instructor for The Three. He did not only train them in a battle technique called perfettu (page 51), but Batozar also entertained Raib when she felt helpless remembering everyone praised her as a ‘pure’ descendant of Bulan Clan and inheriting most power of its.

Batozar menghela napas. Dia tahu apa yang sedang kupikirkan. “Itu tidak pernah menjadi sebuah beban, Putri Raib. Tidak pernah. Itu adalah kehormatan. Kamu tidak perlu mencemaskan banyak hal, cukup lakukan yang terbaik. Dan sebagai awal, sungguh beruntunglah dirimu. Maksudku bukan beruntung memiliki kode genetic hebat tersebut, melainkan beruntung memiliki tema-teman terbaik sejak usiamu masih sangat muda. Kita tidak bisa memilih akan terlahir seperti apa, tapi kita bisa memilih mau menjadi teman-teman terbaik atau tidak.” (Batozar sighed. He knows what I'm thinking. “It's never a burden, Raib. Never. It is an honour. You don't have to worry about many things, just do your best. And as it starts, you’re very lucky. It is not lucky to have that great genetic code, but you’re lucky to have the best friends since you were very young. We couldn’t choose what we would be born like, but we can choose whether we want to be best friends or not.”) (page 144)

In the characterisation, Tere Liye does not only focus on strengthening the protagonists and new ones, but he also managed to show the ruthlessness of the enemy, The Uncrowned Man. Since this novel is the first time in which The Uncrowned Man was clearly depicted, this novel became a wonderful stage for Tere Liye to shiver readers of how heartless The Uncrowned Man is.

“Dasar serangga pengganggu tak berguna!” Si Tanpa Mahkota menggeram marah. Dia tidak sabaran lagi melihat Ali yang ragu-ragu mendekat. Tangannya mengeluarkan cahaya terang. Dia menghantamkan tangannya ke wajah Batozar. BUM! Pukulan yang mematikan. (“You such useless vexing pests!” The Uncrowned Man growled angrily. He couldn't wait to see the hesitant Ali approaching. His hand spareked a bright light. He slammed his hand against Batozar's face. BOOM! It’s such a destructive blow.) (page 222)

Despite the detailed and complete explanation that had been the uniqueness of Tere Liye, some exaggerated scenes or useless dialogues sometimes give the effect of wasting plot in this story instead. This then becomes the lack of KOMET MINOR. Even though it didn’t appear often, readers who used to wait for the surprising fact to correlate with the previous scene would likely be disappointed. This is what I felt when I found out that some dialogues among The Three and Batozar on some occasions like talking about Selena (page 213) or the wombat poops (page 236) meant nothing to the whole plot but merely an addition.

As the last story narrating The Three’s main journey in encountering The Uncrowned Man, KOMET MINOR has such a nice and expected resolution. You will be satisfied by the decision of how The Three end this mission. A lot of dashing and touching scenes will also be memorable for you as I also have a favourite scene when Ali presented his speech in Kulture’s show (page 281). Although this novel finished telling The Three’s main adventure, Tere Liye still added some information about other journeys and more spin-offs of the series that, again, bring readers into an endless curiosity. After all, KOMET MINOR is still very recommended for you who had been falling in love with the series that you always can find them in many bookstores.