Matt McAvoy Book Review

What starts as something of a children’s story evolves as it progresses, into something altogether more suitable for older kids – that said, it does feature a talking cat.  A bit of a book of two halves, I found the first part promising, the second more formulaic in fantasy sci-fi.  I should say, all in all, this is probably a book for the younger teen, though some of the battle scenes (some of which are quite epic), may be slightly less suitable for that particular audience.

Generally pretty entertaining, though I will openly admit that I knocked half a star off its rating for the simple reason that I wasn't ready for the unresolved ending – one of my biggest bugbears, I have to confess.  That said, the title does clearly establish the book as Part 1, in the author’s defence, so you can consider yourself sufficiently forewarned.  That little gripe aside, it’s actually a pretty fun book to read, with some great scenes and character interaction.  I would have liked to see more illustrations, which are computer generated and nice to look at, though there weren’t enough and they were generally not as action packed as I would have liked to see.  Going back to the series as a whole, there is a genuinely gripping underlying subplot, so definitely potential for the series, though as always with these young reader (I won’t call this Young Adult) sagas, I would like to see a firm commitment to a series limit, so you know there will not simply be endless loose end after loose end.

On the whole, I liked this book, and I like Craig’s writing and ability to build a story.  He has promise and real personality.  I think it may be worth his while clearly choosing his target audience and tweaking his writing accordingly; I would suggest a series which starts with a younger reader and matures with their age in its content – such is the model of the Harry Potter series, for example.  I would be interested to see where Arthur, and indeed Craig, go from here, and do hope that I get the chance to follow the series.  If you are a young teenager who likes fantasy sci-fi which starts unassuming and grows in scale, this will probably be a good choice for you, and I would recommend it.