THE DELIVERERS

A boy is sent to an alternate universe to fight pirates and save a world in Slomba’s middle-grade fantasy.

Twelve-year-old Eric, camping out in his backyard, jolts awake from the recurring nightmare he’s had ever since his father’s death, the result of a fall during a hiking trip they’d taken together. That’s when he sees a large, white owl, perched on the oak tree above him. Introducing himself in fluent English, the owl says his name is Stig and that he’s there to bring Eric to the Gatekeeper, the overseer of doors leading to other worlds. Eric and Stig, it transpires, have been chosen to save a fishing village held captive by the evil pirate Captain Sharky. If they fail, the village—and that entire world—will succumb to the “darker power” that has kept Sharky alive for hundreds of years. Eric and Stig’s arrival in the village strikes the mayor’s spirited daughter, Kate, as the fulfillment of a legendary prophecy about two “Deliverers” destined to come save them from the pirates. This stirring fantasy brims with high-stakes action and is humanized by smart dialogue (the loquacious Stig adds humor) and deepened by rich backstories and father-son conflicts, including Eric’s internal struggle with guilt over his father’s fall and a dwarf father’s rejection of his son, Hallo, who is Eric’s new friend. The author’s detailed worldbuilding encompasses serious battle scenes on water and on land fought with a variety of weapons, a lavish dwarf kingdom under the towering Iron Mountains, and a bleak landscape permeated by “the dry smell of the dead forest” and home to monstrous bat creatures. It is there that Eric, Stig, Hallo, and Kate go on a quest for a legendary jewel with the power to defeat the pirates and cleanse the darkness threatening the world. With more doors to other worlds to explore, it’s a good bet that Eric and Stig will be back.

Imaginative, character-rich, and lively—a promising start to a new fantasy series.