Beyonders : Seeds of Rebellion (edition 2012)

It was a little slow at the beginning, but it definetely picked up! I loved the oracle scene! ( )

This is the second book in the Beyonders trilogy. The third book will be titled Chasing the Prophecy and is scheduled for a March 2013 release. I had a lot of trouble reading this book. It is a decent story, but nowhere near the quality of Mull's Fablehaven series. I just couldn’t stay engaged with the story or the characters and this book was a struggle to get through.

Jason is itching to get back to Lyrian after being sent home at the end of the first book. When he gets there he runs around telling people that the Word did not work to destroy the evil wizard Maldor. Rachel meanwhile has meet up with a charm woman and is leaning more about how to use Words.

Seriously Jason runs around telling people the Word didn’t destroy Maldor for the first half of the book. Jason also gathers people together and journeys back to the Blind King. At this point we are over halfway through the book.

Eventually we track through the jungle, meet more Seed people, and go through a zombie infested wasteland. So there is a lot of adventuring and some fighting. I just felt like the pacing was way off and Jason didn't know his purpose or accomplish much for large portions of the book. I almost stopped reading halfway through because nothing was happening.

We do get to meet some excellent new characters. Jason is accompanied by a smuggler named Aram, who is half-giant, and we see a lot more of Ferrick and Ned (who is incredibly adept at poisons).

Rachel also learns to speak magic words and becomes a force to be reckoned with. I enjoyed Rachel's character growth and wish we had spend a lot more time hearing from her. Instead most of the book is told from Jason's POV and he just doesn't grow much or do anything all that interesting in this book.

While the book is decently written, I thought the pacing left a lot to be desired. I just found my mind wandering a lot and had a really tough time staying engaged in the story. There are so many characters in this book that we don’t get to know any of them really well, so that also makes it difficult to care about what’s happening.

Overall an okay addition to this series, but not great. I didn’t like the first book in this series a ton either. So, I guess if you were a huge fan of the first book in this series you will probably enjoy this one. I would definitely recommend reading Mull’s Fablehaven series over this one, in my opinion that is just a much more well written series. At this point I don’t think I will be reading the third book in this series. ( )

The second in The Beyonders series. Jason, a boy from The Beyond (earth) returns to Lyrian to help rebel agains the evil emperor Maldor. Good characters, lots of surprises, and an ending that makes you want to read the next book - kind of a cliffhanger. ( )

This book was even better than the first. The characters are still great, the plot gets even more interesting, and the end is such a cliff hanger. It teaches great life lessons and has more to offer than most young adult fiction these days. I can't wait for the next installment! ( )

In this second book of the Beyonders series, Jason returns to Lyrian to rescue his friend Rachel and tell her the terrible secret he learned in the first book. They team up with a motley crew of revolutionaries and continue their quest to dethrone the evil emperor. Mull uses his ingenuity to create a truly unique parallel world with creative “fantastical” peoples and creatures. His characters are very human in that they all have weaknesses, but they show amazing strength as well. The story keeps up fascinating descriptions of the peoples and places while keeping the suspense levels high throughout the story. This book was even better than the first in the series, and I look forward to the third (and final) book next year. ( )