Krishna
James Reese is a young man in his senior year in high school and a bibliophile through and through. His parents were killed by a drunk driver five years ago and he now lives with his grandparents who look after him. A boy, Seth Rendell was missing for two days and makes it to the local paper but James did not know him well. His school is abuzz with the news too.
James comes across an ad that seeks people with experience in role playing games and fantasy novels His close friend is Dave. For James who has been pestered by his grandfather to find a summer job, it sounds interesting and he decides to give it a try. Dave says he will accompany James, ‘for moral support’.
We also learn that he has a crush on a young girl called Alyssa.
There is another girl who has gone missing, and the grandparents caution James to be extra careful the next day when he goes downtown for that interview.
James and Dave go to the interview spot. When they reach the waiting room, they are surprised to find no one. James browses the books and out of one of those falls a paper asking him to read the first page in the book it fell out of and then go over to the door, open it and proceed. A strange way to conduct an interview indeed! The book says that magic is real. Thinking that he has come to be interviewed by a nut case, he makes Dave wait, opens the door and steps through. He suddenly is in a different place, in a forest by the brook. A strange creature in a blue vest and felt hat. It tells him that he needs to read the book and learn as his survival in this world will fully depend on it. James realizes with a shock that the door he came through has also disappeared and he cannot go back if he wanted to.
After telling him to go to the village of Trendle, the creature simply disappears.
James has an adventure and slowly learns to use his magic. However, when he sees his missing schoolmate Seth being torn apart by wolves, he realizes the danger. When he finds a cave and settles down, he is himself pursued by wolves but when he tries to use magic to kill one of them, he realizes that his strength is draining. He realizes that magic is not free. Later, when he is traversing along the river (to reach Trendle) he is waylaid by a group of wolves and would have certainly died – in fact he nearly did when a wolf bit him in the calf – when a stranger, a gamekeeper in the forest called Ceryn, came to save him.
When a notorious outlaw and his gang overpower James and Ceryn, binding them, Ceryn believes that they are as good as dead but James uses magic to overpower and kill them. Ceryn, grateful, takes the bodies and James and gets him the substantial reward. Thus enriched, Ceryn takes him to Trendle and persuades a farmer, Corbyn to let James stay as a guest. The fact that James is a mage is kept a secret in the town. Corbyn has been let in on it by Ceryn and when multiple boys go missing, Corbyn seeks the magical help of James to find them. The charm of James leads them to a sinister looking house, which was bought a few years ago by a strange man who was seen to raise otherworldly demons using a pentagram and chanting.
For his good results so far, the magical creature comes and gives him as a pendant, telling him that it will be useful ‘in the future’. And James decides to move on from that place to another one called Brent. He keeps some money and the rest as a promissory note from the bank. (Yes, the author likes to make his hero travel for apparently no reason other than to move the story along). In the new town, he stays in an inn and thwarts a mugging by an evil man and befriends a father and son duo called Renlon and Kinney.
The story just meanders all over the place. He has some ‘adventures’ in Trendle. Then he moves to another town called Bearn. Has some more adventures with a boy he picked up called Miko. Nothing even connected to the story, as far as he can see. Then he moves on to the next town and you go ‘what the hell is this story?’
Then he goes to the largest city of all, the capital. By this time you despair of the story having a coherent thread, but it begins to form one. Lord Corerain spotted them when they were running away in Bearn through his gardens – though they did not do anything else, and they were running in the first place to escape from some hooligans who were after Miko. He follows them to the capital city and there, he goes and saves the bard Perrilyn from being tortured.
Perrilyn gives a letter to the librarian in the castle (permission by invitation only) and James learns that his pendant is that of an older God Morcyth whom no one seems to worship now and he learns that the God’s domain is in a far city near the ocean. That is where he resolves to go next.
On the way they have an adventure where they rescue two women who have been kidnapped by bad men. Nothing to do with the story. James, just being a teen, advices the mother that she should consider marrying her daughter to the soldier with whom she has fallen in love. In spite of the needless, unsolicited advise, the mother agrees.
It is not that this lack of realism is the only thing irritating. We are treated to an endless series of the inns they found, the stall where they tied their horses in, the food they ate, the baths they had, their falling asleep – where and when – and then the breakfast they had and again the stall to get their horses back. You get terribly bored because that adds not one iota to the story value. In addition, the conversation is all stilted. Even when they save someone’s life, the only reaction they get is ‘Thanks. That is nice!” and ‘Goodbye’ when the time comes.
I can ignore the fact that in the magical land which has not seen anything other than sword, horses and crossbow every one speaks Americanism : They always say ‘You are welcome’ when thanked. But even the conversations are inane. Miko always questions everything and is gratifyingly surprised to hear the answer. We are not. This book could have been written by a teenager.
The story seems to be in a hurry to conclude. He goes to the City of Lights and gets some partial information about Madoc. He meets the people trying to kidnap Perrilyn and in following them, gets knocked out.
But weirdly, James makes a mental trip to Disneyland, which the creature tells him is one of the focal points of goodness. Why? Because at the mere mention of the name, people feel good. Good God, it totally ignores the business side of the Park. Is it any wonder that you feel that it makes you feel this has been written by a teen with very little imagination? And that side trip has nothing to do with the story either. Except perhaps jingoistic flag waving by the author.
If you have been reading our earlier reviews, you know by now that leaving the story half way through in the hopes of making the readers buy a second book is one of the things I dislike the most. Even a story as great as The Lord Of the Rings trilogy had me disappointed due to this item.
This author also does leave it hanging in the middle of a situation and hopes readers will buy more books to know what happens. I don’t think I will be one of them.
1/10
— Krishna