Author: D.J. MacHale
Publishing Company: Pocket Books
Blurb:
Bobby Pendragon is a seemingly normal fourteen-year-old boy. He has a family, a home and even a dog, his beloved Marley. But there is something very special about Bobby.
He is going to save the world.
And not just Earth as we know it. Bobby is slowly starting to realise that nothing in the whole universe is quite what he thought it was. And before he can object he is swept off to an alternate dimension known as Denduron, a territory inhabited by strange beings, ruled over by an evil magical tyrant and poised on the brink of bloody revolution.
If Bobby wants to see his family again, he’s going to have to accept his role as an intergalactic saviour and accept it whole-heartedly. Because as he is about to discover, Denduron is only the beginning on an epic quest against the forces of darkness…
The review:
This was recommended to me by a friend who told me by a friend who told me the series was good (I’ve noticed this is how I start every review, but yeah, sorry, still will) So I bought it to see if it was good. And it wasn’t what I expected it to be, well it was, in some ways. Let me explain.
From the blurb you expect adventure, fun, danger and magic and things you expect from a book that could be seen as a boy’s read (I see this as a boy’s book if I’m being honest), and for the most part, it was, it didn’t have magic, but there’s definitely danger and adventure and…well a kinda magic without there being too much that everyone is a wizard (actually the only magicy type thing is the flumes), so it’s interesting in that way.
However, there are a few things that I didn’t like. The structure of the book was one of these things, I thought the skipping between Second Earth and Denduron was slightly pointless. Ok, so some parts he needed us to see what his friends were doing, but I found it hard to read because just as the action was about to start, you’d be taken back to seeing his friends, which annoyed me a bit because I really wanted to just skip ahead and read what was going on with Boby. The second thing I didn’t like was the fact that he started his story off with talking about how he kissed another character Courtney. I understand we needed to introduce her so Mark had someone to interact with, but I think they could’ve started with something else.
The characters weren’t bad, well some of them anyway. I’ll talk about them for now. The main character, Bobby Pendragon, is exactly what you expect from a fourteen year old hero who’s been thrown into a bad situation at the deep end. He freaks out, doesn’t fully listen, he is the typical boyish character who doesn’t know what to do or how to act. He wants to go back to his normal life and do normal things. Yet he finds a way to get through it, gets a few slaps around from other characters so that he’ll begin to think clearly & do what he’s supposed to. I’d like to know when he gets the time to write his journals because if so much was going on I’m pretty sure you couldn’t write that much explaining what went on. As for as how much you expect how he works, it’s pretty typical, he reacts just how you expect him to react, but at the end of the day he deals with it and works to help where he can and do what he must, without knowing much at all.
Loor was a character I got annoyed at a lot. She (like Bobby) is a new Traveller (read to find out, I don’t want to spoil anything) but because she’s been trained up to do the stuff she does, she’s constantly annoyed at Bobby because he’s scared or doesn’t understand or something like that, but she knows he’s had no training and has no clue what to do. It’s obvious that she’s just ready to do what she’s told and odesn’t question it, so I doubt she’s had much of a childhood, which is kinda sad. But she’s definitely not the nicest person in the book and she’s very ‘all work and no play’. She’s definitely someone with a very strong opinion & who knows what she wants and mainly knows how to to get it.
I’ve realised I actually have a lot of characters to talk about so I apologise but because there’s two different worlds you have many different characters to cover.
Uncle Press annoyed me a bit. I found that he put too much onto Bobby’s shoulders. At one point he’s angry at Bobby because Bobby did something wrong, then a few pages later, he doesn’t seem to care as he says ‘we all make mistakes’ or something along those lines, when he was extremely angry before. Unfortunately he’s not in the book for too long so you can’t see a proper view of him because he’s not there, so you just get this rather arrogant character.
And now for Mark (final one I promise). I love Mark, I thought he was kinda adorable. Really nerdy and in my opinion the most likable character in this book. He doesn’t know entirely what’s going on, but trusts his friend enough to believe these crazy things. I felt bad for him at some points, but at most points I seriously wanted to hug him. Unfortunately we don’t get to see him much. I don’t know what else to say about him really, he’s just cute when you read him.
The main setting where the actions took place was beautifully described. It felt very much like a magic old time world. You could feel the magic in the book and the world which was great to read.
Overall, I wasn’t thrilled with this book, but at the same time it wasn’t a bad book. The second book in the series looks a lot better than the first.
My rating:
Setting: 4 out of 5
Characters: 3 out of 5
Plot: 3.5 out of 5
Writing: 3 out of 5
Thanks for reading x
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