The Kingdom Keepers Review

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Five teens are given the opportunity of a lifetime when they are chosen as interactive Disney Hosts (DHIs) at the famous theme park in Orlando, Florida. Disney has teamed up with a company called Daylight Hologram Imaging to create innovative virtual tour guides, using the teens as models.
Finn Whitman, one of the DHIs, falls asleep one night and has a very weird dream. In this dream, he is in the park talking to an elderly park employee named Wayne, who was also one of Disney's first Imagineers. While Finn is having a very odd conversation with Wayne, he begins to observe some unusual activity in the park. He sees Chip and Dale headed toward Toontown and Goofy going to Frontierland. Now this wouldn't normally be odd in Disneyland, but it is after dark and all of the costumed employees went home hours ago. At this point, Finn is sure he is dreaming because he saw the original cartoon characters. Not only that, but he notices that his own body is glowing. Wayne assures him that it is not a dream, tells him that he must locate the other four DHIs for a special mission.
It seems that the Magic Kingdom is in danger from evil forces within its walls. In order to save the park, Finn and the other DHIs must cross over in their sleep into a state where they are not fully human yet not fully light.
Ridley Pearson does a great job of expressing the thoughts and conversations of his young teen characters. Even as their situations metamorphose into the fantastic, the kids remain completely realistic. Although this book is written for a young adult audience, it would appeal to anyone who has ever experienced the magic and wonder that is Disney.


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The Last of the Sky Pirates (The Edge Chronicles, Book 5) Review

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(More customer reviews)When I finished book 4, "The Curse of the Gloamglozer", I realized that the stage had been set for an incredible book 5. Thankfully, the books in this series come out much more quickly than the ones from J. K. Rowling , so I didn't have long to wait for "The Last of the Sky Pirates", the best in the series so far.
Set fifty years after "Midnight Over Sanctaphrax" (book 3), it doesn't continue from book 4, the first chronologically in the series, which sounds awfully confusing, but actually isn't. The Edge is a totally different place, with the mighty sky ships unable to fly, and New Sanctaphrax barely teetering on wooden supports after the dreaded stone sickness destroys the buoyant floating rocks. The Librarian Academics have been driven underground into the sewers, where they have constructed a vast library of scientific studies, and are forced to send worthy young scholars on covert and perilous missions for training, before they complete their life's quest by studying and documenting their chosen field of nature study.
In this book we follow the trail of young Rook Barkwater, a clever young under-librarian who is destined to become a Librarian Knight, doing research on the secret gatherings of banderbears, to whom he feels an unexplainable connection. His mission is dangerous and exciting, filled with wonderfully named, described and illustrated creatures that would otherwise defy the imagination.
During his thrilling adventures, he meets Captain Twig, who was thought to have perished with his crew in book 3, and begins a whole new adventure to rescue Twig's friend Cowlquape from the prisons of the Most High Guardian of Night, the villainous scoundrel of this episode.
Just as dark as the other books, but with a lot more action and adventure, I recommend this one heartily to fans of the series, but would advise newcomers to read at least books 1 to 3 first.Amanda Richards, August 8, 2005


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The Sword of Shannara Trilogy Review

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(More customer reviews)I have to say, I LOVE the hardback omni-edition. The weight of it satisfies something in my heart. I don't always replace my paperbacks with hardback books, but this one is a definite buy. The Shannara books hold a really special place in my heart.
I used to teach ninth grade English. 25% of my grading system was based on each student's outside reading, and the writing they did about that outside reading. And you all know that the average 14 year old boy is going to categorically REFUSE to pick up a book, and so are a lot of the teenage girls.
The Sword of Shannara was my "failsafe" deal. I would hand the most recalcitrant kid in my classes this enormously fat little book, brand new, purchased by me, and agree that if they would just read THIS ONE BOOK, that I was personally giving to them, that would be good enough for the WHOLE YEAR. Other kids would beg for the same deal. I would agree, but they had to buy their own books.
Terry Brooks never failed me once. Every single kid I ever handed that book to (including my own siblings as teenagers!) not only read it, they kept reading Shannara books until they ran OUT of Shannara books. By then, they were hooked. I run into them from time to time, those former students, and the conversation invariably turns to 'what are you reading right now?' And the answer has never been nothing. It's ranged from the latest best sellers to Dante Aligheri's Commedia, from Mark Twain to Harlan Ellison, from TWOT to Star Trek. But there was always an answer.
So what if Shannara's not LOTR? NOTHING IS! Hell, the TWOT isn't LOTR, and it's about 13 times longer at this point. I really don't believe it's possible to write fantasy, and not rewrite, at some level, LOTR.
The point is, Terry Brooks wrote a fabulous book. A book that for 20 years (until HP1 was published) was unmatched in my experience for getting kids to read, and to keep reading. It's BRILLIANT.
Because he wrote about fun, engaging characters, that talk in normal English (unlike Frodo, Aragorn and Gandalf, who admittedly take a little wading through at 14, hm?) High adventure. Loyal friends, and dangerous enemies. Ultimate sacrifice. All of it.
I love it. And while LOTR is always ONE of the 3-4 I always have on my nightstand, at least once every couple of years, Shannara joins it there. As it deserves to.
(And if the writing style seems a little immature, I suggest you go back and read "Carrie." It's not exactly "The Wastelands." All writers grow. Get a grip, there.)

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Sabriel (The Abhorsen Trilogy) Review

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(More customer reviews)Possibly one of the greatest fantasy adventures of our times, Garth Nix's first novel is a lush, magical, dark-witty adventure about a young woman's battle with the hideous Dead.
The story starts with a flashback in which a special necromancer named Abhorsen saves his baby daughter Sabriel from a creature called Kerrigor, in the spiritual river of death. Many years later, at an English-esque boarding school, Sabriel must take up her father's magical sword and bells and try to find out what has happened to him. To do so, she must leave her relatively high-tech home for the Old Kingdom, where magic rules and evil things are stalking her.
Along the way, she is accompanied by the guard Touchstone and the menacing/funny cat-spirit Mogget. They must try to defeat the evil Kerrigor, who wants to blast the Charter which keeps all things from descending into evil.
Sabriel is the best fantasy hero I've read about since Lord of the Rings. Too many fantasy heroines are either damsels or warrior women--Sabriel is neither. She acts and thinks precisely like a young woman in her position. Strong, intriguing, and no slack with a sword in a bad situation, she is a wonderful role model.
Touchstone is a darling, but Mogget really is unique. Is he evil? Good? Or some peculiar mix? This ancient spirit forced to live as a cat is enslaved to the Abhorsen family for the good of everyone (we get a glimpse of how dangerous he is). The world that Garth Nix dreamed up, a mixture of Tolkien and WW2 England, is unparalleled in the fantasy genre. It's populated by animated ghouls, ghastly Mordicants, the almost-human sendings, Charter ghosts, the inhabitants of the river of Death, where only Abhorsens go, and so on...
His writing style is lush and hypnotic--you can actually see the events unfolding in front of your eyes, in this wintry but inviting world.
Thankfully, Mr. Nix appears to be writing a pair of sequels--I can hardly wait. Anyone else think this should be made into a movie?


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