Seifer has lived all his life in his small village in the mountains, playing Skrullball (very much like Quidditch in the Harry Potter series, except without broomsticks) and wishing he could find out what lies beyond mountains, despite the fact that his father tells him there's nothing there but pain and sorrow.

Then Seifer gets his chance to find out -- he's attacked, kidnapped and brought to the royal palace in Pandemonium. The Prince has gone missing and Seifer, who strangely looks just like Prince Talon, must pretend to be him, so that the citizens of Pandemonium will not panic and the kingdom's enemies will not become bold enough to attack. Seifer is also to be used as bait to draw out those who might have kidnapped the prince. Knowing the danger of doing this, Seifer only wants to go back home to his family -- but if he refuses, he will be fed to psychotic carnage beasts.

However, it's no easy task for Seifer, a commoner of an isolated village, to learn how to behave like royalty and to assume Prince Talon's personality (which is egotistic and harsh). He has to fool Prince Talon's two sisters, officials, generals and enemies, and things get more complicated when Seifer falls for the daughter of a Baron from a nearby clan. But the kingdom is on the brink of war and if Seifer doesn't pull his impersonation off, he's not the only one who's life will be at risk.

After reading Malice and Havoc, I was excited to see what Chris Wooding's first graphic novel would be like. I thought he'd do the illustrations himself, since he did the ones in Malice and Havoc -- but it turns out Scholastic hired Cassandra Diaz to do the artwork. The illustrations mimic Japanese manga styles and are done in dark tones of grey, blue and red, which suits the characters and storyline quite well.

Most of the characters of the book are creatures that look human-like, but have various additions, like wings or horns. Seifer looks like an ordinary human, except he has large black wings (yes, he can fly), pointy ear-like things on the sides of his head (very much like a bat) and eats raw meat and bugs. The story jumps right in, with little explanation regarding the different species (if you can call them that), their magical powers or history. I thought a little more detail on these facts would have been nice -- but then again, the plot is pretty understandable without them, and allows the reader to get into the action faster. And while the plot isn't particularly original or sophisticated, I did have fun reading it. Besides, it really wasn't written to provoke deep thought. Just read Chris Wooding's comments about Pandemonium from his website: "It will make you happy while you eat cupcakes. What else do you need to know?"

With the way the book ends, it seems that a sequel should follow, though there's no word on when it will be published. 

End of the world stories are very common, whether they are planetary natural disasters, human-created problems, or technological meltodowns.  Some are better than others, of course, but it is a rich field of literature.  I've reviewed a few already for this blog, including Life As We Knew It, which I though was a very realistic approach to disaster, and Death Cure, which was a terrible conclusion to the end of the world.  It's very common in science fiction, and a driving force in action.  Think in terms of movies: the action of  Armageddon, and the more intellectual Deep Impact.

Eric Walters' End of Days fits squarely into this mold, though it leans closer to the Deep Impact side of things.  It takes a two-pronged approach, one that feels like a typical adult sci-fi, and another featuring a teenager who leads a pack of youth in a rundown city.

A prominent astronomer discovers that an distant asteroid is en route to Earth, and will likely cross our orbit right when we are at the same point several years hence, destroying much of Earth's life much in the same way the dinosaurs were wiped out..  A secret cabal promptly kidnaps him and several other scientists to help plan a means of preventing disaster, all without letting the public know of any danger.  Meanwhile, an eccentric billionaire is coming up with his own plans, just in case the scientists fail.  He plans to build an underground compound to protect a handpicked group of people to weather out the decades that the surface would be inhospitable.  For this, he needs young people, including a seemingly ordinary teen from New York.


If the threat of Death From Above wasn't enough, religious extremists are welcoming the disaster as judgement from God and will stop at nothing to prevent the scientists from succeeding.

End of Days works, and having read it immediately after Death Cure, I liked it so much more.  Dealing with the end of the world in both books, I was so much more satisfied with Eric Walters' approach, especially when the issue of trusting others to know what they are doing comes up.  There are no ghosts in the machine for him, and no major plot holes come immediately to mind.

It is a teen book by a YA author, but it doesn't feel like one.  There is no overwrought emoting or angst, and the presence of a teenaged character has no impact on the storytelling.  There is a perfectly good reason that they need a kid his age: he will live longer than old people, so could perform his role until the world can get back to (relative) normal, so it doesn't feel like a teen was included to appeal to teen readers.  In other words, a perfect book for someone who doesn't like teen books.

I have to admit I'm often suspicious of a YA novel written by a bestselling adult author. It seems to be the "in" thing to do these days and the result is sometimes mediocre at best.  And taking a quick look at Richard Paul Evans' bibliography leaves me to wonder how he's going to pull off a subject matter quite different from what's in his adult books, but I was pleasantly surprised and thoroughly enjoyed this first book in the series.

Much like Percy Jackson, trouble seems to follow Michael Vey. He's not on his principal's "good" list, and he's a magnet for bullies. Michael tries to stay calm and keep a low profile, because if he doesn't, bad things happen. Well, not to him, but to others, because Michael zaps people with electricity from his hand every time he loses his cool. It's a power his mom has wanted to keep secret, and Michael certainly tries his best to do so, but when he fights back one day against the school bullies, he catches the eye of a couple people. One being Taylor the hot cheerleader, who has more things in common with Michael than he ever would have imagined, but then there is the man who wears sunglasses at night. Just in case the interest is not mutual, he decides to kidnap Michael's mother to get his full attention.

The plot moves along and the mystery unfolds nicely, as Michael discovers the origin of his power and why all these people are after him and Taylor. The guys are very likeable in this book, especially Michael's powerless but loyal best friend Ostin, and the villain is just plenty crazy and scary. Great resourceful kids but not too invincible, and the ending wraps up the action in this book but also provides a good set up for the next one, without being an annoying cliffhanger type. Riordan fans will enjoy this one, and I think it can work for the upper elementary school crowd too.

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Thank you to Simon and Schuster for providing an eGalley for this novel.