Resumen:El Talento Oscuro

This page contains a chapter by chapter summary of The Dark Talent. We hope this summary will make it easier to find specific areas of the book, as well as providing a quick plot refresher for anyone who doesn't want to take the time to reread the entire book.

Foreword

Alcatraz claims to be a coward, offering this as an explanation for why it took so long for The Dark Talent to be published. He also briefly summarizes the previous four books in the series and informs us that he has now learned how to use footnotes.

Chapter Doug

Alcatraz is being outfitted by Janie for a public appearance as the former monarch of Mokia. He is presented with several costumes, including a those of a clown, a dog, and a frog, which are apparently the traditional wear of a Mokian former monarch. It is implied that this is so those monarchs cannot change their minds and stage a coup to take control of the country again.

The lights on the trunk containing the costumes go out, and Alcatraz attempts to power them as he has done before with other Silimatic technology and ends up overpowering them, causing them to melt. In order to have an excuse to leave while she replaces the lights, Alcatraz claims to need to use the restroom. While alone, he reflects on the need to stop his father, Attica Smedry's plan to give Talents to everyone and then hears voices, which he follows. He discovers his grandfather and Kaz having a meeting with the monarchs of the Free Kingdoms through Communicator's Glass about their failure to come to Mokia's aid quickly enough.

Alcatraz calls them liars while in his bathrobe, and the monarchs hang up the call, refusing to be spoken to like that. However, Alcatraz powers the Communicator's glass like he did the lights, reforming the connection. He delivers a dramatic speech about how the Librarians need to be stopped and he is going to do it, claiming to know something the Librarians don't.

Chapter Lilly

The chapter begins with a "fairy tale", which is actually a summary of Alcatraz's life, with an added happy ending, which Alcatraz claims to be a lie.

Kaz, Alcatraz, and Grandpa discuss how best to infiltrate the Highbrary, suggesting economic sanctions and political propaganda as the first steps in a seventeen step plan. However, following an explosion, they instead decide to steal a ship and go in with guns blazing. They leave the room they were in and run into Queen Kamali, the new Mokian queen. She informs them that Alcatraz's speech from the last chapter was broadcasted on every piece of glass in the city, and that it caused resumed Librarian missile strikes on Tuki Tuki. Kamali tells them that she is ordering everyone into the shelters, and the three Smedrys refuse to join her.

Instead, they run through the city to find a ship to "steal". They select a giant glass penguin, but then Alcatraz remembers that they need to find his mother, Shasta Smedry. Alcatraz and Kaz take off through the city to retrieve her from her makeshift jail in the zoo, dodging missiles and discussing whether or not Alcatraz will be able to bring the Talents back. They finally arrive at the zoo, only to discover that the missiles had destroyed the wall and Alcatraz's mother is free.

Chapter Norton

In this chapter's chapter intro, Alcatraz informs the reader that the reason for the chapter intros is in order to delay the inevitable ending, once again referring to himself as a coward. He also claims that he is also probably too much of a coward to include this section in the book.

Alcatraz and Kaz step into the prison, and find his mother still there, despite the destroyed wall. She is reading a book, which is shown by the illustration in the page opposite to be Mistborn by Brandon Sanderson. She explains that she didn't try to escape because Alcatraz is her best hope to find Attica and stop Attica. Alcatraz convinces her to allow Kaz on the mission with them, and the tree of them set off for the landing field.

A different kind of missile appears, dropping murderous spider robots which proceed to begin destroying the city. As the three of them run from the robots, Alcatraz accuses Shasta of supporting this because she is a Librarian, to which she responds that he isn't truly a Free Kingdomer, causing them to have a giant argument about Free Kingdom vs. Librarian ideologies and Shasta's poor parenting. Eventually they reach a missile that had landed earlier and not exploded, and Alcatraz uses his anger and powers to cause it to blow up the robots.

Finally, they reach the landing field and the penguin ship and Alcatraz is told about the jet-rocket powers of adult giant penguins before they take off, making their escape.

Chapter Bob

They discuss ways to break in to the Highbrary, most of them involving crashes or explosions, and Alcatraz notices that Draulin in on board the ship. Grandpa Smedry and Draulin jokingly insult each other, causing Alcatraz to wonder if they are actually somehow friends. Draulin then punches Shasta in the face in order to test her defense field, discovers and destroys a listening device, and reveals that she also brought Bastille so that they can revive her as quickly and possible and count on her for help once they find the antidote to her coma in the Highbrary. Grandpa sends Draulin off in search of more listening devices, and Alcatraz follows her.

They go to where Bastille is asleep, strapped to a bed. Alcatraz thinks about how helpless she looks and then about how she would punch anyone who thought of her as helpless. Draulin talks about how she's been too hard on Bastille, and Alcatraz thinks to himself that this must be what it's like to have a parent who actually cares. Draulin then calls Bastille helpless, and Alcatraz punches her, because that's what Bastille would want.

He retires to his room, where he finds that Janie had somehow managed to leave him an entire wardrobe of clothes, including both Hushlands garb and the ridiculous costumes of a former Mokian monarch. It takes him a long time to choose what to wear because he keeps thinking about what his mother said about him not truly belonging anywhere. Then something catches his eye, and he puts it on before joining Kaz and Grandpa in the penguin equivalent of a cockpit. They determine that they are going to pick up Dif, another Smedry cousin, and it is revealed that Alcatraz chose to wear a tuxedo which matched his grandfather's, because he feels like he fits in as a Smedry.