Riddles

I've been reading The Riddle by Alison Croggon, second in the Pellinor series. (the first one is called The Naming). It's good! It's about a 16 year old girl called Mearad. (pronounced MY-rad).

When the first book starts, Mearad is a slave for a "petty tyrant". (I think that's what they called him, anyway). Then she meets a man called Cadvan who helps her escape and shows her a world that she hasn't really seen before: a world where people help one-another and where things are fair and beautiful. He also reviles a to her that she's a Bard: a mage who wields the power of the Light. The Bards have acted as leaders and guiders for the people for centuries. But the Dark is rising again, and this rising will be the most terrible yet. It will boil down to a few mumbled pieces of lore, some randoms guesses and a few very odd and confusing riddles to help defeat the Dark once and for all.

That's basically what the books are about. Mearad is amazingly real and complex: I think she is the most believable character I have ever "met" in a book. There will be four books in all.

~Holly.

Pendragon

I have gotten hooked onto a new series: Pendragon, by D. J. MacHale. The first one is "The Merchant of Death". I finished reading it a little while ago. It's about a 14 year old boy named Bobby Pendragon. When it starts, he's just a normal boy: goes to a public school, he's good at basket-ball, he's cool, bla bla bla, you get the point. But the thing is, he isn't at all normal: he is, and his Uncle Press tells him, a Traveler: someone who travels between the universes and helps the people of different worlds through difficult times.

When it starts, Uncle Press comes to him and tells him that there is a group of people that need his help. They are teetering on the brink of a deadly civil war, one that will destroy their world if it happens. What Uncle Press fails to tell Bobby is that these people are in an entirely different universe! Before Bobby knows what's happening, he's drawn into the center of it all. It's up to him, Uncle Press, and a few other people to stop the civil war before it destroys that universe.

This book was quite funny at times. Bobby has rather pessimistic view of things, and will often pick out the worst thing is a situation, or imagine the worst thing that could happen. Although this doesn't sound very funny, it is. It was a good story: well written with some awesome characters. It would probably fall into the "fantasy" category, but it does have some Si-Fi thrown in to. I would definitely recommend this book!