FINISHED:
Mull, Brandon. (2014). Sky Raiders (Five kingdoms #1). New York: Aladdin/Simon & Schuster.

[On Halloween night, sixth grader Cole and a couple of kids from his school are transported, via a passage in a haunted house, to a mysterious world called the Outskirts where they are then held as slaves.  Cole, however, on his quest to rescue his friends, ends up being recruited to be a Sky Raider, pillaging castles kept aloft by float stones, and eventually agrees to help one of the five daughters of the High Shaper of the Five Kingdoms (all long-rumored to be dead) get her powers back, power that is currently manifested in a large beast named Carnag.  Mull has once again constructed a fascinating fantasy world – this time full of flying ships, floating castles, magical objects, and characters who have the ability to “shape” (“to rearrange things and to imbue them with new qualities”).  Cole is a somewhat generic protagonist who doesn’t seem all that concerned with the fact that he is in a strange world full of odd creatures with no (detectable) means of ever getting back home.  In addition, Cole easily loses sight of his main objective – freeing his friends – only occasionally ever even referring back to them at all.  Mull, as usual, though, spins a yarn filled with enough action and intriguing detail to ensure that this series opener will appeal to devotees of his previous works.  [Review based on ARC.] .]


STARTED:
Hale, Shannon. (2014). Dangerous. New York: Bloomsbury.


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