The Merchant of Death (Pendragon Series #1)

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In Pendragon: The Merchant of Death, D.J. MacHale, the creator of several popular television series and Afterschool Specials, transplants the Pendragon name from Arthurian legend to modern-day junior high school. Fourteen- year-old Bobby Pendragon has it all; he's smart, popular, and a star basketball player in quiet Stony Brook, Connecticut. But a visit from Uncle Press soon topples all of that as Bobby learns that he is a Traveler, someone who can ride "flumes" through time and space. Bobby lands in Denduron, a medieval world where the gentle Milago are enslaved by the Bedoowan, and it's Bobby's job to free them. He reluctantly teams up with Loor--a girl his age from the warrior-territory of Zadaa--and other Travelers, recounting his adventures in journals that are magically transported back to his friends Mark and Courtney in Stony Brook. These first-person journals at times feel contrived--they're riddled with terms like "coolio" and "bizarro" and gnarly descriptions of vile sights and smells--but the book's thumping story soon scrubs away all such concern. The Merchant of Death keeps the pages flipping with steady action and near-constant mortal peril for its heroes, promising that both this and future volumes in the Pendragon series should be eagerly devoured. (Ages 10 and older) --D.J. Morel


From School Library Journal
Grade 5-8-In this hefty first episode of a projected quartet, suburban jock Bobby Pendragon discovers parallel universes and gets hero training while helping to resolve a civil war. Shooting Bobby through an inter-dimensional "flume" from an abandoned South Bronx subway station to three-sunned Denduron, MacHale (creator of Nickelodeon's "Are You Afraid of the Dark" series) proceeds to build his tale from prefabricated elements. Wise mentors utter a few obscure warnings before being whisked away; an evil shape changer works behind the scenes to grab ultimate power; two beautiful, well-muscled young women do Bobby's fighting; and there's even the hackneyed "fighting monsters in an arena" scene. Cryptic, arbitrary "rules," typecast characters with clear-cut roles, and frequent set-piece fights give Bobby's passage from scared, confused teen to scared, confused, and determined teen the distinct air of a computer game. Though Bobby does crack an occasional joke, and his lack of martial skills forces him to rely on wits to get out of various pickles, even veteran readers of doorstopper fantasy aren't likely to regard three more equally predictable, drawn-out episodes with much anticipation.John Peters, New York Public LibraryCopyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.


Book Description
Bobby Pendragon is a seemingly normal fourteen-year-old boy. He has a family, a home, and even Marley, his beloved dog. But there is something very special about Bobby. He is going to save the world. And not just Earth as we know it. Bobby is slowly starting to realize that life in the cosmos isn't quite what he thought it was. And before he can object, he is swept off to an alternate dimension known as Denduron, a territory inhabited by strange beings, ruled by a magical tyrant, and plagued by dangerous revolution. If Bobby wants to see his family again, he's going to have to accept his role as savior, and accept it wholeheartedly. Because, as he is about to discover, Denduron is only the beginning....


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Gr 5-8-In this hefty first episode of a projected quartet, suburban jock Bobby Pendragon discovers parallel universes and gets hero training while helping to resolve a civil war. Shooting Bobby through an inter-dimensional "flume" from an abandoned South Bronx subway station to three-sunned Denduron, MacHale (creator of Nickelodeon's "Are You Afraid of the Dark" series) proceeds to build his tale from prefabricated elements. Wise mentors utter a few obscure warnings before being whisked away; an evil shape changer works behind the scenes to grab ultimate power; two beautiful, well-muscled young women do Bobby's fighting; and there's even the hackneyed "fighting monsters in an arena" scene. Cryptic, arbitrary "rules," typecast characters with clear-cut roles, and frequent set-piece fights give Bobby's passage from scared, confused teen to scared, confused, and determined teen the distinct air of a computer game. Though Bobby does crack an occasional joke, and his lack of martial skills forces him to rely on wits to get out of various pickles, even veteran readers of doorstopper fantasy aren't likely to regard three more equally predictable, drawn-out episodes with much anticipation.-John Peters, New York Public Library Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information.


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