NovelCritic

I admit that I didn’t know anything about this book or this author before I started reading it. I was given it in the hopes that it might be something that one of my children would enjoy.

The Merchant of Death begins in New York City with the young Bobby Pendragon, star for his school basketball team and all around good guy, receiving a visit from his uncle. In short order, Bobby is wisked away by his uncle through an inter-dimensional portal to another world where he is the only hope for a civilization on the brink of crumbling into civil war and chaos.

The premise of the story is not necessarily new. Harry Potter gets to a secret platform by walking through a pillar in a train station and into a secret part of London through a brick wall to get to Hogwarts, only to find that he is needed to stop the evil Lord Voldemort, who killed his parents. The children in the Secrets of Droon find a secret entrance to the land of Droon in a room under the stairs where they need to help the people of Droon against the evil Lord Sparr. Long running TV series (e.g. Quantum Leap, Voyagers) have also done just about the same thing. Bobby Pendragon takes a vortex in an abandoned train station to protect a world against the evil Saint Dane.

Even with the fact that the setting and overall plot of the novel is nothing really new, D.J. MacHale does a good job of making the novel an interesting read. The characters were good, especially Saint Dane, who I found to be just evil enough to fear for Bobby’s life, but not quite so evil as to be cartoonish and unbelievable.

I found the novel a little dark and the subject matter a little intense for younger readers — think Harry Potter (though probably not quite as dark as the Goblet of Fire). The story moved along well, and I really never found myself bored at any point.

One thing that I did find fun was the fact that the whole story was told in first person, by Bobby Pendragon himself. With a first person narrative, the author usually has a difficult time keeping the story moving along and avoiding too many pages of introspection. D.J. MacHale didn’t seem to have that problem. The plot moved along well, and I never found myself wanting to skip a few pages to get back to the story.

Overall, I’d recommend the book, and plan on reading the next book in the series at some point. I would caution younger readers against reading the book unless they can handle subject material similar in age to that of the Harry Potter series. I certainly think the book teaches good morals. The importance of self-sacrifice, friendship, and courage seem to be the top themes of the story.

Trackback URI | Comments RSS