View source for Monster Odyssey: The Eye Of Neptune by Jon Mayhew

{{infobox1
|title=Monster Odyssey: The Eye Of Neptune
|author=Jon Mayhew
|reviewer=Robert James
|genre=Confident Readers
|rating=4.5
|buy=Yes
|borrow=Yes
|isbn=978-1408826300
|pages=256
|publisher=Bloomsbury Chilren's
|date=May 2013
|website=http://www.jonmayhew.co.uk
|summary=Fast moving, tense, and really exciting, this is a real hit from the ever-reliable Jon Mayhew.
|cover=1408826305
|aznuk=1408826305
|aznus=1408826305
}}
Dakkar, son of an Indian rajah, is sent to study with Count Oginski after being expelled from several different schools. Initially unhappy, he starts to enjoy learning from the mysterious count, and when Oginski is kindnapped by masked men, he sets out tor rescue his mentor. Can he take on the kidnappers, giant sea monsters, and an evil maniac to save the day? 

This is rather fabulous - it's full of action, has a great central pairing in Dakkar and the girl he meets, and despite the high stakes and amount of death it's all done without too much gore, so I'd be very happy to recommend the book to older primary school readers as well as younger secondary school students. In many ways it reads like a classic children's adventure story - it clearly owes a debt to Jules Verne, and it's refreshing to read a modern take on underwater action like this.

Mayhew has been consistently impressive since his [[Mortlock by Jon Mayhew|debut]] a few years ago, and it's good to see that his first book outside of the loosely-linked Mortlock trilogy is still of the high quality we've come to expect from him. The book moves at a rattling pace - Mayhew appears to have adapted Raymond Chandler's advice of ''When in doubt, have a man come through a door with a gun in his hand'' to something along the lines of ''When in doubt, bring out another sea monster!''. It's tense, exciting, and really does draw you in. Oh, and the aforementioned monsters are enough to give those of us with a vivid imagination nightmares! I particularly enjoyed the ending to this one, which paved the way for future books in this series but which also gave us a very satisfying resolution to this story - something I don't think these series books always completely succeed at.

Highly recommended, I'm already looking forward to the second book in this series!

As mentioned, [[Mortlock by Jon Mayhew|Mortlock]] and the other two books in that trilogy are both well worth reading! For more action inspired by classic novels, I really like [[Leopard Adventure by Anthony McGowan]], the first in McGowan's series of sequels to Willard Price's novels about Hal and Roger Hunt.

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