Jake Ransom & The Skull King's Shadow - James Rollins
Jake Ransom & The Skull King's Shadow - James Rollins
Jake and twin sister Kadys’ parents disappeared 3 years ago on an archaeology trip. A mysterious package turns up with their parents’ notebook, sketchbook and a strange pendant in it. Their adventures really begin 3 years later when they are invited to an exhibition in London which is showing some of their parents’ amazing finds. They discover the pendant has a secret - it creates a tornado which picks them up and takes them to a strange place outside of time, where ancient tribes like the Vikings and Aztecs still live. How on Earth will they get home? Will they discover what happened to their parents and how does this all link to the horrifying and mysterious ‘Skull King’?
One of the themes for this book is problem solving. Friendships are also very important, as Jake and Kady make friends with teens from other cultures. Good versus evil is another theme; can the twins and their friends defeat the evil Skull King? Parts of this book are plainly horror, but in essence it is an adventure book.
This book would suit 13-14 years olds. It’s interesting to see how different races of people live and how they get on. Setting this novel in a mysterious place and populating it with people from different times gives the author leave to play about with creating stories using stereotypical historical identities. I like this as an idea for a story, it makes you wonder how they would cope in our time – would the Vikings want to cause fights, or would they be overwhelmed by our technology? I found that Jake and Kady are a little patronising to the other races, but I still liked Jake - you can sympathise with him; his sister has the same circumstances, but she is more of a fighting psycho!
The story reminds me of The Wizard of Oz - Tornado, mysterious place, friends needing help, trying to get home… It has lots of action and heaps of twists and turns. It’s very unpredictable and I didn’t want to put it down. There is a very good resolution towards the end, but you’ll have to read it to find that out!
Ashley
