First Hero (The Chronicles Of Avantia) by Adam Blade
| First Hero (The Chronicles Of Avantia) by Adam Blade | |
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| Category: Confident Readers | |
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Reviewer: John Lloyd
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| Summary: The first in this new series offers exactly what we expect from Adam Blade - strong visual action, and not much in the way of originality. | |
| Buy? Maybe | Borrow? Maybe |
| Pages: 192 | Date: July 2010 |
| Publisher: Orchard | |
| External links: Author's website | |
| ISBN: 978-1408307472 | |
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There's a land under threat from an evil man leading a well-drilled, lethal army. And there's a boy, and his companion, and his destiny is to save the land from the evil man, who will only get more evil if he gets what he wants, which is currently in four pieces. If this sounds like a well-worn template, don't blame me. Adam Blade writes as if by committee, and that's because he is one - it's a pseudonym for a cabal of pre-teen fantasy churners. But enough of him - we should be talking of Tanner, the lad in this book.
And he fills the template in all areas. Dad? Dead. Mum? Missing, at hands of last evil bloke, despatched in turn into a volcano in the prologue. Companion? In this case, Firepos, the phoenix-like Flame Bird, who did the despatching. Physique and temperament? Boy verging on the man, innocent verging on the hero. Destiny? To reunite the four pieces of a mask which helps the wearer control the several semi-mythical creatures, such as Firepos, before the bad man General Gor can.
It's almost brave of this series opener to ask one of the burning questions it raises - that of, why is the mask even allowed to exist in pieces? Why, too, is one kept in the care of Tanner's gran? And why does Gor start moving his armies when he can't read the secretive map he's following?
The latter does at least allow for him to move his troops into a locale well suited to a fairly strongly-written conclusion. The kinetic battle scenes are the only saving grace and selling point for this title - if it weren't for the clarity and drive of the action writing this franchise would be doomed to failure. It's a typical Adam Blade book - young male hero, surprised at finding himself killing people, and with the usual strong whiff of monster-of-the-month, by-the-numbers stuff. And it'll sell in typically Adam Blade numbers, even without the collector's cards and competitions all over Beast Quest titles such as Creta the Winged Terror. Even though it is the template, and not a whole lot else.
I must thank the publishers for my review copy.
There's a better series for children just slightly older than this one's audience, beginning with Firestorm by Mark Robson.
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