by Simon and Schuster
Genre: Middle Grade Fantasy
Source: ARC from publisher
The second epic installment of Brandon Mull’s #1 New York Times bestselling fantasy series! After the cliffhanger ending of A World Without Heroes, Jason is back in the world he’s always known—yet for all his efforts to get home, he finds himself itching to return to Lyrian. Jason knows that the shocking truth he learned from Maldor is precious information that all of his friends in Lyrian, including Rachel, need if they have any hope of surviving and defeating the evil emperor.
Meanwhile, Rachel and the others have discovered new enemies—as well as new abilities that could turn the tide of the entire quest. And as soon as Jason succeeds in crossing over to Lyrian, he’s in more danger than ever. Once the group reunites, they strive to convince their most-needed ally to join the war and form a rebellion strong enough to triumph over Maldor. At the center of it all, Jason and Rachel realize what roles they’re meant to play—and the answers are as surprising as they are gripping.
I was hoping to post this review yesterday, on the release day, but life got in the way and I just got too busy. One thing I was busy doing was attending the launch party for this book. I'm lucky to live in a place with a lot of local, talented authors, and Brandon Mull is one of them. I took my almost nine year old son with me, and I loved seeing the joy and excitement in his eyes. He's gotten really into reading, and was so excited when I bought him his own copy of the first Beyonders book to get signed. He loves the cool fantasy covers, and is always asking why he can't have more books with cool covers.
Anyway, onto the review. One thing I really like about Brandon Mull is that his writing is so inventive and it feels different. He's got a crazy good imagination, and it shines through in his writing, especially in this series. There are none of the typical elves, dwarves, and wizards. There are fantasy races in this book that are completely different, and if I'm honest, so different I can't even picture them. But that's not a bad thing. It's great to read something new and fresh.
The writing is solid and there's a lot of action here. The characters are dealing with one thing after another, and things very rarely slow down for them. There were so many different areas of Lyrian that we visited in the first book that you'd almost think there'd be nothing new to explore in the second. Not so, as we visit new and exciting places and get to experience new adventures right along with the characters. Okay, not literally, which is probably good cause I'd be scared out of my mind if I was living this story. Curled up in a ball hoping to wake up soon kind of scared. But of course, in books, characters are always braver and able to do things that normal people just don't do. That's why we all love these stories. We get to live adventure after adventure and travel the world and visit fantasy worlds and it's wonderful! And this is one of those books that makes me happy that I read.
This sounds like a great book, and it's always nice to be able to support local talent =)
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