The Lost City of Faar

The Lost City of Faar picks up with Bobby's second adventure thwarting the evil Saint Dane, whose goal is to destroy all worlds and all times. This time he journeys to the water world Chloral, where he teams up with a local named Spader and his Uncle Press. Together, they must identify the turning point Saint Dane will attempt to exploit and counter his attempt to throw this world into chaos.

The series' basic tasks, character roles, and terrain are similar to Diane Duane's Young Wizard series. A major difference is the presence of Courtney and Mark, witnesses who are generally removed from the action and only read about it post hoc in Bobby's journal. In The Merchant of Death, they were called upon to perform some important functions for Bobby. In the present volume, they must thwart their classmate Mitchell. Their role in the story is interesting but as-yet underused. I will hope for more involvement from them in the future.

This series has enough to offer that I've decided to keep going, but I have some misgivings about doing so. My concerns are about certain kinds of poor writing, not word choice or overuse of exposition, for example, but lack of internal consistency about the rules of the universe the author has constructed. I can live with the fact that MacHale is no stylist and that the only voice truly characterized is Bobby's. I can live with the idiocy of Mark and Courtney being frightened that Mitchell will betray them to the police and that the police would actually believe him. I can even live with the ferociously clunky ending of this volume, which has its own disturbing problems related to unreliable exposition (not unreliable narration, but actually telling the reader that events happen and then undoing them in a poorly rendered reveal). Rather, I'm talking about instances where an author undoes physics, not in a way that is consistent with the world s/he has constructed, but for authorial convenience or due to oversight. The Lost City of Faar offers several choice examples of both of these inconsistencies. If you're a person who didn't care that Niven's Ringworld rotated backward in the first edition, or about the order in which the spirits of dead people erupted from Voldemort's wand, you won't see what I'm talking about as a problem. If you have to call your friends when Homer Simpson's shirt is ripped in one shot and then suddenly not ripped in the next, heed my words: In order to enjoy the Pendragon series, you must suspend your annoyance. MacHale comes dangerously close to Funke's cavalier attitude in Inkheart and Inkspell, which can be paraphrased (to avoid spoilers) as "Gee! I don't know why that happened when it's never happened like that before and that's not how it's supposed to happen in the rules of this universe, but oh, well!" Travelers can use hypnotic powers of persuasion--except when they can't. Travelers can recognize Saint Dane in disguise--except when they can't. I will spare you my diatribe about "children's literature" that seems to be based on the assumption that children are idiots and that good crafting is not just as important as it is in adult fiction. I'm sure you can imagine how it goes. ( )

So, I was kind of hoping this would be a Supernatural book, just so I could stick to the Genre of the Month, but it is obviously a fantasy. (With some sci-fi thrown in!) Okay, so L gave me this book at our last book club, and I have to say it ended up being pretty dang amazing! (Although there was no romance.) Anyways, to the review!

So, this is kind of a random non content related thing, but the first thing I liked about this book was it's smell. Call me crazy, but I miss the smell of the paper that was in all of my first chapter books. The rough greyish kind, do you remember? Well I didn't notice people stopped using it until I read this book and noticed the first paperback version came out in 2003, so it explained the paper. Anyways, actual content stuff now. Well, I have to warn you that this book is a sequel, and I did not read the first book. I think you should be fine with not reading the first, because the first two chapters catch you up on whats going on, which is a little boring but when you get to where Bobby enters Cloral, the pace really picks up. Okay, I love love LOVED the characters and their dialogue in this book. On Cloral, Bobby befriends a guy named Spader (who is the Traveler from Cloral but he doesn't know it yet.) and I absolutely loved Spader. I'd imagine Spader had somewhat of an Australian or British accent, just based on the way he says things like 'mate.' But he also has his own dialogue that is specific to the younger people on Cloral. Spader is VERY energetic and runs around saying things like 'Hobey-ho!' and 'We're in a bit of a tum-tigger aren't we, mate?' This may seem very goofy to you, but that is one of the best parts of the book. MacHale really knows how to come up with some great dialogue. Tell you the truth, I kind of have a little book crush on Spader. But off the topic of Spader now. Not only were the characters and dialogue amazing, but I loved the plot and setting. I don't know about you, but I love the idea of Atlantis possibly existing, and Faar is Cloral's version of Atlantis. Cloral itself is a world I want to live in. Everyone lives on huge, floating cities and gets ood from underwater farms. And everything there uses water in a way to make something or power something. I really loved the idea of water poweringerything. Their guns and cannons shoot water! (Which sounds ineffective, but it really was effective.) I've always been a bit of a sci-fi geek, so I wasn't exactly kicking and screaming at the thought of some sci-fi mixed in with my Fantasy. I know I've been rambling and basically just saying how I have a crush on Spader and want to live on Cloral, but that should be a hint to how amazing this book is. If it wasn't amazing, I wouldn't want to live in that world. Excuse my rambling :) But long story short, read this book!

ps. I really didn't get that into the chapters on Earth where his friends were reading the journal, but they are important, and it was probably due to the fact that I didn't get to know them in the first book. ( )

book is about hidden cities protected by a clear dome ( )

Book review Pendragon
The Pendragon series is about a boy Named Bobby Pendragon and He finds out he is a traveler and has to leave home in till his “Quest” is over. His “Quest” is that he has to save “halla”( The Entire universe/different worlds) from Saint Dane. The worst part about it is he lives in one of the world’s Third earth. Whats going to happen is he going to stop saint Dane. Is there enough time to find out read the book. ( )

this book is has a great story line and i was captivated ofter the first three pages, it has an amazing story line with many twists and turns. the adventure is great and the cliff hangers make you just want to dive in some and devour the book as quickley as you can just to find out what happens in the escapades of bobby, spader and press. ( )