A pyramid history buffs and fantasy fans will delight in excavating. (Fantasy. 11-14)
Being an immortal 14-year-old pharaoh isn’t all scepters and servants; there’s also the overthrowing of a homicidal cult—and finishing one’s homework.
Shortly after Tutankhamun discovers that his uncle and trusted adviser, Horemheb, is part of the cult of Set, god of chaos, he also learns that Horemheb murdered the pharaoh’s family and means to kill him, too. After a struggle at knifepoint in Tut’s soon-to-be-tomb, an incantation from the Book of the Dead renders both nephew and uncle immortal, with only Tut managing to escape before the tomb is sealed. Flash forward 3,300 years to Washington, D.C. Tut is an eternal eighth-grader (“Why did I have to be fourteen? It was perpetual puberty”) and has been coerced into another year of school by his immortal guardian, Gil (as in Gilgamesh). When Tut finds evidence of Horemheb and Set’s cult in D.C., revenge becomes his obsession. Merging the voice of an outspoken contemporary 14-year-old with centuries-old expletives (“Holy Amun!”) renders Tut both comedic and devoted to his origins. Gods and goddesses abound (Horus is Tut’s one-eyed cat; Isis is a demented mortician), and at times the pages feel cluttered with deities who aren’t particularly important to the story. Plagues, pestilence and floods in D.C. as threats don’t feel all too threatening. Conversely, the tension between Tut and creepy Horemheb is a well-placed and -paced plot driver.
A pyramid history buffs and fantasy fans will delight in excavating. (Fantasy. 11-14)Pub Date: Sept. 16, 2014
ISBN: 978-0-7653-3468-8
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Starscape/Tom Doherty
Review Posted Online: June 9, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2014
A wild, roller coaster ride despite the credibility-stretching ending.
The third and concluding volume in Smith’s breakneck Storm Runners trilogy shifts the scene from a circus’ devastated winter quarters in hurricane-wracked Florida to the ominously active Mexican volcano Popocatepetl.
As in the previous episode, Surge (2011), the action picks up with minimal recapping. Hardly has Hurricane Emily blown through than worrisome news that all contact has been lost with the Rossi Brothers’ Circus, on tour near Mexico City, in the wake of a major earthquake. This sends a crew headed by catastrophe experts Chase and his father John to the rescue. Smith immediately scatters his party over Popocatepetl’s shaking, landslide ridden slopes amid clouds of ash to discover human corpses, dead elephants and big cats, desperados, trapped refugees, dozens of badly injured villagers and (just to crank the suspense up another notch) an escaped tiger. Though the SEAL airlift that John eventually calls up to get everyone out of their various pickles is unalloyed deus-ex-machina (and can you say “international incident?”), at least it provides a tidy getaway to go with the resolution of several personal side plots.
A wild, roller coaster ride despite the credibility-stretching ending. (Adventure. 11-13)Pub Date: March 1, 2012
ISBN: 978-0-545-08174-0
Page Count: -
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: Jan. 3, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2012
Occasional jokey dialogue won’t be enough to carry readers over a story riddled with logical gaps, extraneous characters,...
A frenetic dash across Europe that leads both to hidden treasure and the resolution of a 1,600-year-old mystery brings Newsome’s once-promising trilogy to a muddled, heavily contrived close.
Framed for the (supposed) murder of archenemy Sir Mason Green, jumped-up preteen billionaire Gerald Wilkins and his twin sidekicks Sam and Ruby are on the run. They repeatedly escape police and a beautiful poisoner while following a trail of baroque clues that take the three from an ossuary deep within Mont Saint-Michel to Grecian Delphi. This, improbably, turns out to have been secretly roofed over beneath fake ruins centuries ago to protect its fabled treasures and still-functional oracle. Newsome seems far more intent on chivvying his characters along than in setting any credible challenges for them. He pitches the trio through one chase scene or rescue after another, giving them easy access everywhere by leading them directly to a series of conveniently discovered open doors and cave entrances. All is revealed in a climactic subterranean faceoff during which the (surprise, surprise) still-living Green explains his nefarious purposes in great detail, before Gerald knocks him unconscious and expedites the death of his pet assassin.
Occasional jokey dialogue won’t be enough to carry readers over a story riddled with logical gaps, extraneous characters, massive coincidences and laboriously fabricated suspense. Illustrations not seen. (Adventure. 11-14)Pub Date: May 15, 2012
ISBN: 978-0-06-194494-9
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Walden Pond Press/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Feb. 14, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2012
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