Monday, January 14, 2013

BOOK REVIEW: "Beyonders, A World Without Heroes" by Brandon Mull

So, we got this book from the kids' section of Barnes & Noble. Jonathan had seen a review of it in his Boy's Life Magazine and we had read all of Mull's Fablehaven series. Plus, I like to know what my kids are reading. Plus, some youth & kids books are really fun reading (I still love reading A.A. Milne's books - he's hilarious!). So my first book of 2013 is the first installment of Beyonders.

I will agree with my son's assessment: Mull is perfecting his craft and Beyonders is better written than Fablehaven (even more so than Mull's "The Candy Wars" that we did NOT like at all). Still, I found it pretty formulaic of the youth hero quest books. Do not expect a whole lot of deep thinking here, though Mull's main message is obvious - Heroes do the right thing, even when inconvenient or even deadly. And there is my pet peeve - writing a series on purpose. I understand, sometimes whole thoughts cannot be contained in one book without making it a giant tome, but still, it drives me a little crazy. I've written series books, but not with the intent to do so, only because there was more story to be told. And you can tell which books say, "Hey, here's some more to think about!" and which you know from the start are going to be chopped into little pieces so you have to buy three books instead of one.

Mull pulls his heroes-in-the-making from two different parts of the country into a new world; one is a school athlete and the other a know-it-all homeschooler (we can relate) and makes them learn to get along to finish their quest and find a way home. I'll give it to the author, the quest's conclusion is not as it seems (spoiler: not a happy ending) and the end of the book finds one thrust back to his own world while the other remains, not knowing if her friend is dead or alive. And thus we wait for installment two.

Too, Mull throws in clues that will supposedly one time end in an explanation as to the strangeness of the two arrivals (known as Beyonders) to the fantasy world. Personally, I find it disconcerting to hint at something and not reveal it in the same volume (thus, you must read the other books in order to find out).

Okay, I'll stop being so hard. It's a book for older kids, it is fairly interesting, and brings up some points of value questions. My son is looking forward to the next book. That is a recommendation in itself.

Grade: B

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