Grimpow: The Invisible Road by Rafael ÁbalosMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
Grimpow is a MG/YA medieval adventure that is a lot like Harry Potter (or closer, perhaps, Lyra Belacqua) unraveling a DaVinci Code-style mystery. It starts out slow, almost DNF slow, spending too much time with Grimpow's education and some picaresque meandering (the author is Spanish, so maybe he fully intended to write una novela picaresca) but once we get close to the tournament, the action improves a great deal and the plot kicks in.
From that point it's a four-star novel, and that's how I rate it overall.
The characterization isn't deep, but when the focus turns in earnest to Grimpow's quest it doesn't really matter. It's fun to follow him and his friends as they face real-life villains and ancient puzzles across northern Europe. One of the things I like in stories like this is the way the locate allies who they can rely on, kind people who are glad to help. I get tired of stories where everybody is horrible to everyone and no one can be trusted. It's not like that here.
This book went unread in my classroom library for several years, but I think it has an audience. The reader needs to hold on through some low points in the first bit to get to the fun stuff. I'm not gonna hunt it down immediately, but I'm up for the sequel and have reason to hope it'll be a little more even.
Some fun ideas here. Mostly recommended.
View all my reviews
No comments:
Post a Comment