Curse of the Spider King

I have The Door Within Trilogy by Wayne Thomas Batson at home to read; I have heard wonderful things about it. When I saw this book on my Amazon Vine newsletter I was excited! So, I got this book through the Amazon Vine program. There are supposed to be at least three book in this series; the second book "Venom and Song" is due out August 2010. This was a fabulous book!

Seven kids with very different lives find out they all have one thing in common; their human parents are not their real parents and they themselves are not human. Tommy, Autumn, Johnny, Jimmy, Kat, Kiri, and Jett are all on the brink of turning thirteen years old. They come from different parts of the world and different walks of life but they are all about to be brought show more together. They are all elven lords from an alternate world and as they approach thirteen their gifts are starting to become active. Suddenly they are being hunted by manlike creatures in grey trench coats and they are each given a book of Elven history that literally comes to life when they touch it. Will the elven Sentinels find all of the elven lords before the Spider King does? These kids, now elven lords, are the only people who can keep the Spider King from annihilating the elven race.

This was an excellent book. For the first third of the book it alternates between scenes of the children living their current lives and scenes from the elven book of history. There is a lot of setup to do in this book. You have to bring seven different kids together. All of the kids live in different parts of the world and have completely different lifestyles. It took about 200 pages to introduce us to all of the kids; but surprisingly the introduction of the characters was so well done it was a pleasure to read. The writing styles between the current scenes and the history scenes varies significantly and I wonder if the two authors wrote those parts separately.

Batson and Hopper introduce the characters in a way that is intriguing and engaging; I never felt like the story was bogged down by all the characters. All the different Sentinels and their elven lords can get a little bit confusing (Tommy, Jimmy, and Johnny are easy to mix up because of name similarities, I personally would have picked more varied names) but there is a nice index in the front where you can look up each character if you do get confused.

The characters are amazingly well-developed and fleshed-out; especially considering how many of them there are. The enemies are truly evil and the heroes are heroic. The plot clips along at a fast pace, with excellent tension as you wonder if the Elven Lords will ever meet up and travel to their home world of Allyra. The world-building is amazing and the breadth of the story impressive. I enjoyed every part of this book. The writing style is a pleasure to read with a good balance between description and action; the dialogue flows very well and sounds natural.

All the above being said I think this is going to be an immense series. There are so many characters and so many things happening; that the story will be a big one. So, far I have heard at least three books for this series...but I wouldn't be surprised if there are more. This was a wonderful example of great middle grade/young adult epic fantasy and I think adults will enjoy it too!

I really loved this book and cannot wait to read the next one. The strong points of this book are the wonderful characterization, excellent world-building, and intricate yet engaging plot. The only weak point is that there are a lot of characters to keep track of; but the authors did a good job of lending a hand in that area by providing an index in the front. After reading this book I am even more excited to read The Door Within Trilogy. show less

Heed the prophecies all you readers out there. I'm sure by now you've scanned reviews and heard the echoes of the impact this book is making. I am 15 years old and devour all kinds of fantasy, secular and Christian, adult and teen works. To start, this book proved itself worthy to sit on the number one spot of my "Best Modern Fantasy" list. At least until its sequel is released.

COTSK is about 7 teenagers, each from varying backgrounds (a variety enough for any reader to resonate with at least one), who are thrust into strange and confusing circumstances wrought with danger and mystery. COTSK is the story of another world, Allyra, and how the noblest of all races in that world was nearly destroyed. COTSK is the story of how 7 teens are show more revealed as Elven lords prophesied to save a dying land.

Now don't leave me yet. Curse of the Spider King is NOT your average "two worlds" novel. This isn't the type of story where children wander into another world and are instantly filled with unlikely courage and save the day. Quite the contrary. This is the story where realistic teens with hurting and burdensome hearts are faced with an impossible task (yes, quite impossible) and learn two words--Endurance and Victory.

Be prepared when you read this book for a large cast of characters, characters with distinct personalities and histories, deep characters, and be prepared to fall in love with them. Be prepared to read this book and forget about everything else save it. I have never felt the sensation of "not being able to put a book down" until I read this book. And I have read everything from Eragon to Shannara to Dragons In Our Midst. This book easily tops them all. And better yet, it lays the groundwork for an exciting series to come.

The world of Allyra is a world you do not want to forget, and you do not want to miss out on.

Wayne Batson and Christopher Hopper have successfully combined their voices into one and written a beautiful book. Honorable adults, courageous characters, a loving almighty God. Hair raising battle scenes and repulsing spiders. Evil villians and mystery wrought within. And one insanely intriguing story-line, I'm still putting pieces together. And I'm loving it!

You will love this book. show less

Great YA fantasy with NO STUPID LOVE TRIANGLE. Or the equally stupid I'm-dying-of-love thing. It is also refreshing to read a fantasy that has some diversity in it.

Best of all, the christian element is NOT hitting you over the head at every turn. It's nuanced, thus more realistic and a good example of how to do it right.

This is a perfect book if you love Elves (and who doesn’t).

After the Spider King minions destroyed the Elven kingdom Berinfell. He had hoped that was the end of the elves, but something happened that he had not planed…
With the Allyran Elves almost non-existent they have one hope.
That hope is on earth, hidden in a billions people. This is a fun and exciting book for anyone who likes fantasy.

There are a few things that I don’t like though.
1) The ages of the main characters are 13, I like books where the hero’s are slightly older.
2) The names are a little hard to keep track of and there are three names that I had a lot of trouble with. Their names are Tommy, Jimmy, and Johnny. So you can see to many “mmy’s” and show more “nny’s.”

Other then that this is a great book and a lot of fun to read. Wayne Tomas Batson and Christopher Hopper did a great job. show less

The elven world of Allyra is attacked by the Spider King and destroyed in one battle. In the midst of the battle, the seven heirs of the leaders of Allyra are kidnapped and hidden on earth. There they are adopted and raised as normal earth children. They have no idea of their real heritage. Now thirteen years old, the Age of Reckoning, the elven lords are coming into their powers as teenagers on earth, learning the truth about their identityand being hunted down and attacked by the sentinels of the Spider King.

I got this audiobook during a sale on audible. It took me a long time to get around to listening to it and when I finally did, I enjoyed immensely. The narrator was good and the story was very good. There is lots of background show more and mythology development. It's definitely from the Lord of the Rings family tree.

I would normally recommend this book without hesitation but I learned after listening to the book that (1) it is part of a planned trilogy and (2) the publisher is dropping the series. I'm extremely disappointed that there's a possibility that I won't get to finish the series someday. Hopefully, if they can't find a new publisher, the authors will considering self-publishing as an ebook. show less

This book has believable protagonists, nightmarish villains, and a lot of action. A major strength of this book is a cast of characters I could identify with. Although I'm older than the main characters in this book, I can remember facing a lot of the same issues as most of the main characters while I was in middle school, which is quite an accomplishment considering there are seven very different ones.

Somewhat of a concern is the book's large cast, with many characters with similar occupations and not enough distinctions to keep them all straight all the time. As for the seven main kids, their characters were different enough to keep straight, although a couple of their names are similar enough to be confused.

There was one part of this show more book that lost my interest because there was a main character I couldn't personally identify with very well, but others who have read Curse of the Spider King assure me that this section is in fact interesting to people who are not me.

Overall, I enjoyed this book, intend to reread it, and would especially recommend it for readers who enjoy YA series as it is really only the beginning of a larger story. show less

This book is good. The characters are, in many ways, extremely unique and easy to relate to. The Seven Lords come from diverse backgrounds and have enjoyable hobbies, quirks, homes and families. The book is chockablock with humor, mystery, and cliffhangers, and by almost all standards clean. However, the only reason I gave this book just four stars is because I think that the writing style was at times unclear and there a were few grammar issues that I found distracting. Nonetheless, I would consider this book a worthy read.

-whisper