Fiction Addict

Genre: Adventure/Fantasy, Young Adult

Publisher: Thomas Nelson

Publication Date: November 2009

Reviewed by Kaci Hill

I have a confession. I picked up The Curse of the Spider King without knowing what it was supposed to be about or having read anything by either of its authors. My ARC copy has no back cover description, either. In fact, it includes a handwritten note letting me know it wasn’t the final version and errors were already in correction. But that title just sounds like it’s going to be amazing, so I requested it. Like several I’ve reviewed lately, both Hopper and Batson were suggested to me by other authors whose works I am familiar with. Besides, where in the world is the adventure if I know exactly what to expect?

At any rate, the story fixed its hooks in me from page one, with a group of Elven Sentinels (an elite class soldier) heading through a portal into Earth to retrieve several missing persons after, in Allyra time, eight hundred years of searching. The problem, I soon discover, is twofold: these seven missing thirteen year olds (Earth time) don’t know they’re missing, and the enemy assassins sent to kill them are also closing in.

Two dimensions, two basic storylines. The kids’ stories are simply about their lives, turning thirteen, discovering they’re from another world and have incredible power. They’re each given a book of their own history—a book that comes alive (literally) as they read it. And in their readings we learn how seven Elflings came to be lost on Earth. That is, they learned the story of the Elves. In some ways, however, I felt the story really belonged to the Sentinels searching for them, largely because the kids really don’t know what’s going on for so long, and they join the battle pretty deep into it. Moreover, despite the large cast, for the most part I had no trouble enjoying the characters and keeping up with plot. I confess a couple times I had to flip back, but this was only once or twice.

The themes largely involve the intricate nature of the past and present. I read one review (remember, I read reviews after I read the book) that suggested it was a coming-of-age story, but I must respectfully disagree, for the aforementioned reasons. The book has several strong themes and resists any temptation to beat the reader to death with them, and some of that I fully expect to cross over into book two, Venom and Song.

One small thing regarding a particular review: I read one from a woman  who said she thought a boy would enjoy it better due to the action sequences, and I read a couple who thought adults wouldn’t enjoy it as much or relate to the characters as well. Please note, I am a twenty-six year old female, and I find such assessments poppycock. The story and characters were both engaging. In fact, the only other thing I could find to comment on was, really, that the ending of the story snuck up on me: I wasn’t quite expecting it to end where it did, but, with the primary goal of the story accomplished, that was where it needed to end. It actually reinforced, in my mind, the idea that it’s really about the Sentinels bringing the children home, not simply the children learning they’re Elves in a ‘coming of age’ fashion. Suffice it to say, I’m looking forward to Venom and Song, a bit anxiously, at that.

Review copy provided by Thomas Nelson Publishers.