Jake Ransom and the Skull King's Shadow

Very readable. Reminded me somewhat of Cryptid Hunters. Easier to read for a younger audience. lots of action. ( )

This exciting time-travel adventure opens three years after Jake Ransom's archeologist parents have disappeared in the Yucatán, leaving him and his sister, Kady, nothing but their journals and a Mayan coin, broken in half. The siblings receive an invitation to attend an exhibition of Mayan antiquities at the British Museum, and are soon after catapulted into the prehistoric past where ancient Mayans, Romans, Egyptians, Vikings and even Neanderthals have joined together to do battle with the Skull King, a creature so evil that he only appears wrapped in shadows, "as if the darkness were scared of what lay hidden at its heart and attempted to hide the horror from the world." Jake, an Indiana Jones in the making, and Kady, a cheerleader who learns to channel her inner Viking, fight the Skull King to a draw, discovering clues about their missing parents. In this series opener, Rollins (The Last Oracle) presents a wide range of interesting historical information while telling a rollicking good story that should please a wide range of readers-and maybe even some of his adult fans. Ages 10-up. ( )

Jake Ransom and the Skull King’s Shadow
by James Rollins
Harper Collins
9780061473791
April 28, 2009,416 pages

Jake Ransom and his older sister Kady receive a mysterious invitation to an opening exhibit of Mayan Treasures at The British Museum in London. Three years ago their parents disappeared on an archeology exhibition. Jake, having a penchant for studies and strong desire to follow in his parent’s footsteps is thrilled. Kady, diva and social butterfly is reluctant to go, but ultimately agrees when she realizes cameras will be everywhere. How could she possibly miss this fashion and social opportunity.
Unfortunately their trip to London takes them farther than they expected as they find themselves in another place. It’s definitely not London as they immediately face a carnivorous dinosaur. Ultimately they meet the inhabitants who are people from multiple ancient civilizations all living together in a place called Calypso.
Rollins has set the scene for the perfect action adventure story for middle grade students. They are lost in a strange place. They are alone are among strangers. They
are immediately faced with their first life or death challenge.
Your heart will beat with the cadence of his poetic prose. Fast moving drama pushes you forward with a driving beat through his use of lyrical text. Rollins is a master of momentum and tension. A barrage of sound effects will come alive as you are compelled to turn each page no just reading but hearing the story. Students will beg to stay up late to read this book and it will fly off the library shelves. Let’s hope the sequel is not far behind. This well written series will fill the holes in many library collections. Rollins is a natural fit for the young adult fantasy adventure drama.

Wisteria Leigh

© [Wisteria Leigh] and [Bookworm's Dinner], [2008-2011]. ( )

My 7-year-old is really enjoying this book. Me, not so much, but I'll rate based on the target audience.

I'm a James Rollins fan for the most part. I enjoy his stories which always move at a fast pace, are very well written, have a solid amount of viable science and history to make things believable, and have characters deep enough to sustain interest. Jake Ransom is no different, but adds more of a fantasy angle.

The book is definitely written towards young adults...maybe 6th grade and up. My son's in 2nd and certainly wouldn't be able to read it on his own, but he loves the adventure and mystery that Rollins strongly builds in each chapter. Think of Jake Ransom as a young Indiana Jones - that's pretty much the pull of the story and characters. ( )

I was wary of this book right from the get-go. The prologue was a rather clunky attempt at action and suspense, which didn't give me much hope for the rest of the book. Then I read further and found out that the main character was yet another one of those too-smart and too-misunderstood genius boys, the kind that can do no wrong without learning something profound from the experience, the kind disliked even by his teachers for his awesome intellect.

It's painfully obvious that this book was not intended to be read females. The female characters exist as pretty shallow archetypes. The love interest (or "like" interest, as we are talking about pre-teen characters) is there to be pretty and admired and sometimes make a helpful comment or two. Jake's sister Kady is a shallow and temperamental girl who has little on her mind but looking pretty and dating popular boys. Even if you invoke Suspension of Disbelief for the scene where Kady's shown to have skills at fancy swordwork (because swordword is totally the same as her cheerleader baton routine), any potential coolness is drained away by the new few paragraphs showing that Kady's somewhat proud of herself for starting new fashion trends amongst the Viking girls. Eventually, she teaches the proud warriors-in-training how to cheerlead.

No, I'm not joking. They learn to cheerlead, which provides enough distraction so that Jake can sneak away and go be the big hero and work on saving the day.

Like your books to have diverse and strong female characters? Then stay far far away from Jake Ransom and the Skull King's Shadow.

I'm not sure why this is. Perhaps the author has a thing against women, or perhaps he naively thought that girls wouldn't possibly be interested in adventure stories and so didn't think there was any point in putting positive female characters in. Bach'uuk, the overlooked little Neanderthal slave boy whom nobody pays attention to, got more positive page time than any female other than Marika. Feel sorry for the little boy, but don't give a toss about the girls, because they're icky and pointless.

I feel compelled to say something positive about this book, however, and if it has any saving grace, it's in the pacing. The writing flows smoothly, and it can pull readers along, making them want to see what happens next, what event is just around the next corner. Rollins also, admittedly, had a knack for addressing questions that I mentally formed as I was reading. Why was a t-rex chasing a Mayan girl and a Roman boy? Why are so many diverse cultures living in one tiny area without integrating and mixing their respective cultures despite many generations having passed? Why is everyone able to understand everyone else's speech? Some authors may have just hand-waved these issues, thinking perhaps that the intended audience wouldn't know enough to even realise the problems, but Rollins actually addressed the questions head-on. The explanations may have been too simplistic for real life, but for a kids' book, they were sufficient.

I also keep trying to tell myself that the plot twists would have been sufficient for a kids' book too, even though none of them particularly surprised me. Sometimes it felt like Rollins was trying to pull a J K Rowling with his plot, and not quite managing. The reveal of the bad guy here felt like the reveal of the bad guy in Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone. Bait-and-switch, connection to the underling, the minion's pain... I swear I was waiting for the power of love to give Jake the power of a burning touch no evil can stand...

Ultimately, I'd recommend passing over this book. If you feel like borrowing it from a library some day, or reading it while it's still free on HarperCollins, go ahead, but I wouldn't recommend that anybody actually spend money on this thing. ( )