| Invisible City, written by M.G. Harris |
|
|
|
If you can imagine a Matthew Reilly novel without the military knowledge, male bravado and Bruce Willis-style stunts, then you have a good idea of what to expect from this title. It is a combination of Indiana Jones, National Treasure and young James Bond! This is fine if you are a young boy looking for an exciting read as the novel moves from improbable action-packed scenario to the next. The author has obviously written this to target this audience and she has included all of the necessary elements: nerdy but athletic hero, attractive female friend who may become a possible love interest, good friend who acts as a foil for the hero, bad guys from an unspecified government agency, long-lost family members, parents who disappear from the narrative early on, ancient mentor figure, etc. Name a clichéd character from popular culture and they appear in this novel.
Josh is enjoying a fairly normal life in England when he in informed that his father, a well-known expert in Mayan culture, has died in mysterious circumstances in Mexico. Suspecting that something is not quite right, Josh begins a blog to record his suspicions. This is then read by Ollie, a 16-year-old girl who also has an interest in solving mysteries, and they begin investigating Mayan hieroglyphics but just as they are about to begin piecing the puzzle together, Josh’s house is broken into and his computer and father’s notes stolen. Where to next? Mexico, of course, to retrace his father’s footsteps in the hope that something turns up. Apparently, Josh has been travelling to Mexico every year with his family looking at ruins so he is comfortable with travelling such a distance and then checking into a hotel. He has his mother’s blessing (she remains back in England, recovering from depression) and he travels with his friends but this is presented as being perfectly natural. Once there, he meets long-lost family relatives and becomes more certain that his father’s death was a murder. It turns out that Josh is the key to a Mayan prediction that the world will end in 2012 and only he can regain the long-lost codex which will help prevent it. Sounds incredible but it happens! And I haven’t mentioned the near-death situations, the deaths of bad guys, the deaths of good people, the Mayan inventions (anti-gravity being the most incredible), the long-lost Mayan cities beneath the ruins (the invisible city of the title), the arranged marriages…and so on. Each chapter contains a new revelation and this is fine if you are a 14-year-old boy who is turned off the Reilly novels because of their size. There is a coda which suggests that there will be more in this series and there needs to be as the mystery surrounding Josh’s father has not been resolved, the Mayans have designs on Josh and the bad guys have not been completely eradicated. Josh is an interesting character, with a bookish manner which is coupled with some skills in capoeira, a Brazilian martial art, but he is rarely given time to reflect on his situations as he plummets from one scene to the next. The genre is not suited to reflection, admittedly, and some of the minor characters are two-dimensional. They utter condolences where required, or support when needed, but beyond that, we get little impression of who they are, nor how they are allowed (in his friends’ cases) to join Josh on a journey across the world. There are many fantastic locations spread throughout, just like a Lara Croft game, and there are descriptive passages devoted to them, as well as occasional blog entries by Josh which are supposedly what he shares with the world. However, the novel is narrated from his viewpoint so it is little different to the bulk of the book. Other than having a different font and the opportunity for Ollie to comment on his posts, the blog entries seem to serve little function. Invisible City would be an enjoyable read for its target audience and will sit comfortably beside the young James Bond series and novelizations of action movies. Readers who want more complexity or are interested in character development may want to move on. |
| < Prev | Next > |
|---|
