THE OWL KEEPER

Another cookie-cutter tale of a “Chosen One” informs this awkward mishmash of science fiction and fantasy. Max is a sickly, craven complainer just shy of his 12th birthday when he encounters the bossy and boastful Rose beneath the Owl Tree, where he secretly cares for an injured silver owl, possibly the last of its magical kind. Together the pair ferret out the dreadful secrets of the post-apocalyptic High Echelon and are forced to flee for their lives. Yet an ancient prophecy promises the coming of the Owl Keeper, who alone can stop the Absolute Dark. Overwritten prose wavers between a world of ill-defined magic (Good) and preposterous science (Evil) with clumsy info-dumps contradicting pedestrian descriptions that tell instead of show. While the heroes’ implausible friendship is perhaps justified by their shared unpleasantness, their over-the-top enemies are at least entertaining in their cartoonish villainy. Any reader who manages to hang on until the heavily telegraphed climactic twist will be frustrated to find that the whole wearisome slog serves merely as setup to the big battle yet to come. Tedious. (Fantasy. 10-14)