For Bobby Pendragon, the Connecticut teenager charged with saving our world and several others, waking up in a hospital room means certain change. For a few pages there he thought his end was near -- he had goaded the arch villain, Saint Dane, too far, and the result was a near fatal beating. Young Pendragon's defeat proved that he was in desperate need of warrior training to ensure his survival. But will the transition from mild-mannered teenager to flume-traveling fighter be enough to save the planet Zadaa from Saint Dane's machinations? Know your enemy, Bobby Pendragon!
The Rivers of Zadaa is the sixth book in D.J. MacHale's Pendragon: Journal of an Adventure Through Time and Space series. The series has become a minor hit and Rivers of Zadaa has the distinction of being the first in the planned ten-volume series to be published with a cloth binding and a Simon & Schuster brand (rather than the Aladdin Books imprint of the previous books). To some extent, Rivers of Zadaa holds its own among the other books in the series. Yet the series' charm lies in its pulp science fiction qualities, and the new publication strategy and hefty price increase actually detracts from my enjoyment of the book in some ways.
MacHale writes the Pendragon series for a young teen audience, roughly ages 10-14. (I am reviewing as an outsider to that target demographic.) The novels focus on Bobby Pendragon, who found out in Merchant of Death that he is not merely a popular, basketball-playing junior high school student, but that he is also a Traveler, one of a small cadre of people (for the most part -- but they're not always humanoid) who oppose the evil Saint Dane in his (for the most part -- but he's not always male) quest to destroy Halla, which is a universe of ten worlds (including the one I'm writing from) that are called Territories. Naturally, Bobby is a bit surprised to find all this out, and begins to reveal his self-discovery (so to speak) to his best friend, Mark Dimond, and his girl friend, Courtney Chetwynde (it's a complex relationship, but "girl friend" will have to do). Mark and Courtney, being good suburban kids, support Bobby's universe-saving activities as much as they can through Lost City of Faar, The Never War, The Reality Bug, and Black Water. Usually Mark and Courtney's duties consist of reading and storing Bobby's adventure journals, making them something of an extension of the reader, an interesting idea.
For the most part, Bobby's adventures take place in other Territories, which he travels to via Flumes. Typically he must discover the turning point in the Territory's history -- the moment when order will give way to chaos -- and also discover who Saint Dane has disguised himself as in his effort to assure chaos. Then Bobby and his fellow Traveler(s) set about thwarting Saint Dane. The emphasis in the novels is on action, enough characters are hurt or killed to make the risks involved more real and to heighten the drama, and Saint Dane's disguises and villainous activities provide for some good plot twists. MacHale is particularly good at surprising his readers by camouflaging the real turning point -- often what is at risk is a key species in a complex ecosystem, and often that species is humanoid, making Saint Dane even more evil as a genocidal maniac who plays on the intolerance of one culture to bring about genocide. And, quite often, Bobby must help the underdog survive the genocide, which in turn saves the intolerant culture from bringing about its own demise. (Further background on MacHale's Pendragon books can be found in the flawed Pendragon: The Guide to the Territories of Halla.)
These components are all in place in The Rivers of Zadaa. Zadaa is a desert world on the surface, but subterranean rivers flow beneath that surface. Two tribes dominate the story, the dark-skinned, surface-dwelling Batu and the light-skinned, cavern-dwelling Rokador. They live in balance, with the technologically superior Rokador making certain that the Batu receive necessary water and the militarily superior Batu providing defense from outlying cannibals and growing crops for both tribes. The turning point is an apparent drought that promises to destroy the balance between the Batu and Rokador. It is up to Bobby and Travelers Loor and Alder to find the cause of the drought and, of course, to discover Saint Dane's role in the impending chaos. Meanwhile, on Second Earth (from where I am writing), Saint Dane is also busily bringing Mark and Courtney into the story.
For the first 172 pages Rivers of Zadaa is fairly boring. Indeed, my copy, despite its cloth binding, has a mangled look from the number of times I fell asleep on the it, and this despite a head-to-head fight between Bobby and Saint Dane. It is after that fight that Bobby decides he must improve his fighting skills, leading to a lengthy section that video gamers would recognize as "leveling up." More tedious, however, are MacHale's journal passages. The books are written in an interesting style of alternating voices, complete with different font types. One of these voices is Bobby's, conveyed through his journals; the other is a third-person perspective of events surrounding Mark and Courtney. MacHale has used this technique to good effect through much of the series, but it falls apart in places. The problem is an understandable one -- an attempt to balance the idea of a journal while retaining detail and dialogue. Unfortunately, in most of the first sections of Rivers, there is simply too much dialogue and detail, and the journal tone is completely lost. Bobby, nor anyone else, would string together several pages of verbatim discussions with other characters in a journal.
Having finally stayed awake through the first 172 pages, my persistence paid off. The remaining sections of the book are action packed. The story returns to Second Earth for important revelations about Saint Dane's activities there, with Mark and Courtney at the center of the narrative. Bobby's journals are faster paced (and shorter), and are also significant to the overall series as Bobby finally discovers that he not only has the physical ability to stand up to Saint Dane, but that he has at least one supernatural ability of his own. The characters are all further complicated by Courtney and Bobby both finding they have affections for other people. This amidst a race against time that takes place in the narrative foreground, as the cause of the drought is revealed and, as Bobby points out, it results in an "earth shattering" adventure. After surviving that experience, Bobby steps into the flume to continue his adventures in The Quillan Games (due out in May of 2006). Mark and Courtney are left to sort out troubles on Second Earth, where it is Courtney's turn to wake up in a hospital room.
The overall strength of Rivers of Zadaa is that it moves the Pendragon series forward in important ways, transitioning the action to Mark and Courtney and Second Earth, and revealing Bobby's new strengths. Yet it is tough to find this as good a book as Black Water, the preceding title in the series. With Bobby's journal entries slowing the opening sequences, combined with the books moving into the $15 price range, I'm left to move Rivers of Zadaa into the three-star area. I'd recommend picking up the recently-released paperback edition instead.
My Pendragon Reviews:
Book One:Merchant of Death
Book Two:Lost City of Faar
Book Three:The Never War
Book Four:The Reality Bug
Book Five:Black Water
Guide to the Territories of Halla
Book Seven:Quillan Games
Recommended:
