've been reading so many depressing books lately that I decided to reinvigorate myself with a nice YA adventure. I got into Pendragon a couple of years ago. I read book one in an afternoon in the airport. Book 2 got me through a lot of being injured. Then, I tried to order other books on audio CD. The library doesn't own many Pendragon's on audio book. There are nine books in total. They only one three. My new audio book club reintroduced me to Pendragon. I mailed back a book today which means a new book should be en route to me as soon as they receive my old one. I hope adventures 4&5 arrive before I leave for D.C. as they would be great additions to my Amtrak journey.
In between making payout on myLot, finishing lots of my Olympic coverage, and posting one more article for examiner yesterday, I read 3/4 of the book. I read the last two disks today on the van service and while my assistant was on break. But, I'm talking too much about things that don't really relate to the book. For those of you who don't know, Pendragon is the story of a 14 year old boy named Bobby, his best friend Marc, and his semi-girlfriend Courtney, and their adventures together. Courtney and Marc live on second Earth which is present day Earth. There's also a first Earth in 1937 and a third Earth in 5060. I always thought there was only one Earth and I didn't know why it was called second. In this book, I find out why. Bobby dis a traveler. He goes from world to world (there are about 7 that I know of) and helps defeat this truly evil force or person (and I use the term loosely) named Saint Dane. Saint Dane is a traveler too, and his goal is to wreak havoc on all the territories (which we would call planets). He figures this will get him appointed leader of a place called Hulla. Hulla is basically everything. I, like Bobby, think it's a really bad idea for a really bad person to be in charge of everything.
The point of the story is that if you change history sometimes even a small thing can really screw up the universe. In this case, the thing that would affect all the Earth's at once is the Hindenburg disaster not happening. In the story, the Hindenburg disaster was caused by a gang war between two rival mobsters. It turns out that one mobster was giving data to the Nazis and if he would have continued (which he would have if the Hindenburg wouldn't have exploded) the Nazis would have developed the bomb first and dropped it on America and London. Not that I'm a big bomb fan but the idea of Hitler having it first is always bad.
So, Bobby and his other traveler friends have to make sure the Hindenburg crashes even though it cost a lot of lives. This is a lot for a 14 year old boy to deal with. Luckily, Bobby has his best friend and his girl back on second Earth who keep track of him through the journals he sends through his special ring. Other travelers also use the ring to communicate with him.
I'm not going to tell you anymore about the plot because it's a good read and you should read it. Although, each story technically stands alone I wouldn't recommend reading them separately. You'll get a much more cohesive feel for the series if you read them in order. Even though they say this book is for kids, I really enjoy it. As someone in the writing craft, J.D. MacHale can write a good story. In fact, I think I could die quite happily if I could write exactly one story like him exactly once in my life. I don't know why they don't write adventure books for adults. Apparently, we're all supposed to be off searching for how to find the perfect man or woman or how to have a good orgasm. Apparently, adults don't need adventure. Well, I do!
I'd rate this book an 8 out of 10. I liked it a lot even though it used a somewhat tired metaphor in the science fiction genre namely that if you mess with a minor thing even to do good you potentially could screw yourself and the entire world. Or, in this case, three worlds. I've read a lot of science fiction in my day and have learned that no matter what the purpose it's never a good idea to mess with space time continuum. Something always goes wrong. It doesn't matter what your intentions are.
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