(My son recently had an assignment to spend the day “shadowing” someone at work to learn about their job. His teacher was fine with him shadowing me as a writer, which just goes to show you that the rising generation already knows how to work the system. So he wouldn’t spend the day goofing off, I had him write a review and “submit” it to me for editing and revision. This is what he wrote.)

Beyonders: A World Without Heroes
By Brandon Mull
Aladdin, 2011

A guest post by Rhys

A World Without Heroes is a book about two people from our world falling through to another world in some unlikely circumstances. The first main character that we meet is Jason. Jason is smart, but not a nerd or a geek, and he enjoys playing baseball. He has a fairly snarky personality but tends to like people. When he gets to this new world, at first he thinks that something weird is going on but other than that thinks he’s still on Earth. Rachel is smart, close to the point of being a nerd, and is home schooled. She is even more snarky than Jason, but still has a soft spot for people that are in need. She is very close in personality to Jason, and that helps them get along… most of the time.

This world is ruled by the last wizard, Maldor. Maldor is a bad person who enjoys torturing people and in the end almost killing them. Most of the time he lets them go with something that makes it so that they will never be a threat to him again. One person from the new world who helps Jason and Rachel is Ferrin, who is a displacer. Displacers have some weird talents; for instance, they can pull bits of them off and if it’s an eye, they can sew it on something else and still use that eye. The other person who helps them is Jasher. Jasher is an Amar Kabal, or “seed person.” The Amal Kabar are people grown from seeds that are pretty much invincible. Well, they still die, but their seed lives and grows another version of them. They only are babies once. Jasher is an outcast who is seeking out Maldor so he can kill him. The reason being, Maldor permanently killed someone he was related to.

One of the things that I enjoyed about this book is how it never leaves you hanging and it’s filled with suspense. Some of my personal favorite characters are the bad guys. Part of what made this book so good was the fact that there were bad guys who had almost, but not quite, turned into good guys just by hanging out with Jason and Rachel.

I didn’t enjoy that no matter what, the enemy pretty much knew what the heroes were doing at any time. And sometimes, the enemy felt like it was just a bit too overpowered. Even in a world where the bad guy was the last wizard, the antagonists shouldn’t have that much power at their disposal. This whole book is basically a starter for a much bigger series and that gives the impression that no matter what, the good guys are almost destined to fail at their goal till the next book.

Despite all this, I think that overall it is a good book for people who enjoy action, fantasy, and adventure. In the end I loved this book a lot and could hardly keep myself from reading it all day at school. I finished it in about 3-4 days, so I can personally say it is an amazing book that can be enjoyed by people about nine and up.