By M. L. Forman
Publisher: Shadow Mountain®
Summery:
(From Back Cover)
“The
sign was small, tucked into the corner of Mr. Clutter’s bookshop window:
“Adventurers Wanted. Apply Within.” No one but fifteen-year-old Alex Taylor
even seems to notice it is there. And for Alex, who has wished for a change in
his life, it is an irresistible invitation.
Upon
entering Mr. Clutter’s shop, Alex is swept away on an incredible adventure to a
faraway land filled with heroic warriors, mysterious elves, and hard-working dwarfs.
Alex
becomes the eighth man in a band of adventurers seeking the lair of Slathbog
the Red—an evil dragon with a legendary treasure. Along the way, Alex and his
new friends must battle dangerous trolls and bandits, face undead wraiths, and
seek the wisdom of the Oracle in her White Tower.
Alex’s
adventure takes him to distant and exotic lands where he learns about courage,
integrity, honor, and, most importantly, friendship.
Slathbog’s Gold in the first book in an exciting new YA epic fantasy series and
heralds the arrival of a major new talent in the genre.”
Characters:
Alex, who is the main hero, is a young boy from a
world very much like our own. When he is transported into this other world, he
is very confused and curious about how things work there. He has a hard time
understanding how magic works in this world, and has to learn about the many
different cultures he encounters along the way. While his confusion at the
beginning is understandable, once you get halfway through the book, and you see
he is just as clueless as he was at the start, you can get annoyed with his
blandness. For example, the bulk of what he says is “What?”, “I suppose so,”
or“Yes, but-.” So, I really have no idea what his character is like. All I know
about Alex is that he keeps asking the other characters to explain something,
or is always trying to get the other characters to take shares from rewards he
obtains along the way.
Now, the supporting cast! The company leader is a
man named Bregnest, who doesn’t seem to do much except tell everyone where they
were going next or when they were going to stop for the night. The other
characters Alex travels with are just as shallow and boring, and two of them I
constantly kept forgetting were present. There is also a female character, who
is called the Oracle. Everything about her seems to be just like Galadriel from
J. R. R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Ringsthat
I can’t help but picture her as the elf queen! The only difference is that this
lady isn’t an elf. Well, she couldn’t be a complete rip-off right? So, the
characters don’t stand out and most are quite forgettable, or so much like
characters from other books that they are unoriginal.
My Thoughts:
When I first saw this book, I was drawn to the
cover. It is a beautifully designed cover with a dragon, climbing mounds of
treasure and spouting flame. Just epic. What really made me want to read it
though, was the description, which as I read it, sounded so much like the storyline
for ‘The Hobbit’, that I wanted to see just how much it took from it. There are
so many elements of this book that seem pasted straight from The Hobbit or The Lord of the Rings that I couldn’t decide to laugh or to cringe.
It was also a very slow read. I read halfway through it, and it seemed the
characters were going through the same loop: Walk, Alex gets confused,
characters explain, sleep, get up, walk, Alex is confused again, someone
explains, etc. etc. So, I almost gave up and threw the book to a bottom shelf
somewhere, but I kept on. I’d like to say that the last half of that book was
awesome, but I can’t. I can only say that it did get better than the first
half, but only because they started meeting more people and seeing more places
along the way. There was one scene that I really enjoyed, however, and I wished
it could have lasted longer. It was spooky and dramatic, and I thought it
needed to have been expanded on.
To me, the story seemed to be just an
introduction to the world, setting up its people and cultures for future books.
While some of the places Alex and co. stopped were interesting, and I would
have enjoyed it if they had explored those places more, other locations were
rather dull and very often some place I have already seen in other stories.
Perhaps the sequels are better, but I am not sure if I will be reading any of
them. At any rate, this book is a simple read, and not too involved that it
can’t be read over a weekend.
Warnings:
There is magic in this book, and the characters
use spells to light fires and once to help in battle. Nothing elaborate. The
characters use the word ‘inferno’ to light a campfire. Other times when magic
is used the author just mentions that a spell was spoken. The rest of the book
was descent, so if you don’t have any misgivings about magic, there are no
warnings.
My Age Rating: 12 and up
Cya!