Beyonders: A World Without Heroes, by Brandon Mull, is still another in the already long line of YA novel series dealing with the theme of The Hero and the Quest. Luckily for all of us, many of these series are beautifully written and full of worthwhile life lessons for youngsters. Beyonders, too, is well done -- carefully conceived, cleverly constructed, thoughtfully themed. It is also entirely appropriate for kids.
The hero here is one Jason (like the argonaut) Walker (think traveller). It’s neat when character names reflect their literary functions. It’s also good preparation for young readers to be on the lookout for that strategy as they begin to read more sophisticated fiction.
Jason, a normal, bright, conscientious, athletic teenager who works at a local zoo, suddenly hears magnetic music coming from the gaping mouth of a zoo hippo lying at the bottom of the zoo pool. He bends over to hear it more closely and promptly falls into old hippo-mouth. Mouth and hippo turn into cave-ish thing, and when Jason emerges, he is in another world.
The adventure begins. So does the intro of pretty standard Hero and Quest characters, settings, and plot twists, turns, and dangerous journeys along tortuous paths.
Jason has, of course, the usual hero travelling companion. In this case, his assistant, brave sidekick, Sancho Panza-Scottie Pippen person is a pretty and feisty young lady named Rachel (think biblical heroine), who has also fallen from the great beyond (hence Beyonders) into this strange world without heroes but plenty of juicy villains, chief of whom is the evil and cruel wizard/dictator Maldor (think malevolent, malicious, maleficent, Mordred. Oh, you get it.)
Our heroes’ twin missions are (1) get back home and (2) defeat the mighty Maldor to save this world. Along the way, they meet good and evil kings, good and magical helpers, and vile and evil (same word, different letter-order) magical monster beings of all sorts -- and they never do save the world. But fear not! They will certainly do so in the third book.
All cliches notwithstanding, however, Beyonders is a solid sample of its genre and a good, exciting read with some great surprises toward the end. Recommended for young adults (age 9 - 19) despite the cliche-carping herein.
For great graphics and more information, visit Brandon Mull's website.
FTC Disclaimer: this book was reviewed from a review copy provided by the publisher.
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