Reviews

Gr 9 Up-Young warrior Billos is sucked from his "swords-and-sorcery" world into an alternate reality-ours. Tempted by the evil Marsuvees Black to hunt for books of powerful magic, he accepts and begins heartlessly attacking the small town of Paradise, CO, with his newly granted superpowers. Meanwhile, his lover, Darsal, and her friends make a deal with the monstrous Alucard in order to rescue him, but when they arrive in our world, they find that the now-cruel Billos is convinced that they should join him in his quest for power. Complexly plotted, this work seems to require knowledge of the YA novel series it is derived from; for new readers, it can be bit of a challenge to understand some of the story line. Although this book has some light Christian themes, the overall tone is not evangelical. It may be best for libraries that have a strong demand for Dekker's work or for Christian-themed works in general; for general collections, it is best as a supplemental purchase.-Dave Inabnitt, Brooklyn Public Library, NY Copyright 2009 Reed Business Information

Released simultaneously, these two books demonstrate the difficulty of converting prose novels into graphic fiction, especially when a complicated backstory is involved. Bestselling Christian writer Dekker wrote the YA Lost Books series to fill a gap in the chronology of his adult Circle trilogy, which chronicles a long struggle between the forces of darkness and light in our Earth and a fantastic parallel world. At the beginning of the series, four young people are given the mission of finding the seven missing Books of History to secure the continuity of reality. In Renegade, the hotheaded Bilios uses a forbidden book to transport himself to a small Colorado town, where a dark stranger convinces him that the people aren't real so that it's okay to kill them. In Chaos, young Johnis and Silvie are transported to Las Vegas, into the middle of a scheme by a monstrous Shataiki bat to unite the books and bring his mate into this world so they can spawn. The dynamic but uncredited artwork is good, but these adaptations are too plot dense to be satisfying. Readers may turn to Dekker's novels if they're intrigued by this combination of C.S. Lewis and Stephen King. (June) Copyright 2009 Reed Business Information.