Thursday, September 17, 2009

Review: North! Or Be Eaten


This is a review as part of the blog tour of Andrew Peterson's new book: North! Or Be Eaten, book 2 in the Wingfeather Saga.

First off, I tried to start reading this book without having read the first, On the Edge of the Dark Sea of Darkness. That didn't work. The first page of North! Or Be Eaten is filled with most of the main characters names, seven to be precise, and they were all running around. So I found myself completely lost before even turning the page. To solve this I downloaded the first book and then found myself much better prepared for book 2. The moral of the story: read book one first.

And read them you should. The Wingfeather Saga and, even though I usually prefer audio books, I thought North! Or Be Eaten was an improvement on the first. Andrew Peterson has a humorous style that reminds me somewhat of Lemony Snicket's, "A Series of Unfortunate
Events." But it's definitely original, and the presence of humor doesn't mean the story is lacking in the adventure, imaginative setting, or memorable characters that any good young adult fantasy should have.

As a side note, both books are written in an omniscient viewpoint of sorts. I didn't find it overly distracting, but some people might.

Overall, I recommend North! Or Be Eaten to any readers of the fantasy genre.

8 comments:

Brock Eastman said...

Well I have the second book, but I need the first. So hopefully I can get around to buying it!

Nathan R. Petrie said...

Goodness...I've heard lots about this book lately...so much in fact that I htought it was book one lol

Hannah Nicole said...

Wow, I haven't been around here in awhile, and for that, I apologize.

But anyways, I wanted to let you know that I've awarded you with "The Honest Scrap Award". Go to my blog to get it and check it out. :)

Hannah

Anonymous said...

hannah, are you serious?
i was just coming by again to tell him that i awarded him with the Honest Scrap Award, too! you know, that's just not right... :)
oh well...
jacob, i awarded you, too! same one, though... :P

Ivorydancer said...

I have awarded you!

Amy Browning said...

Hi Jacob!

You visited my blog Pages of Discovery a few months ago when I wasn't posting much, but I'm back and am excited to see how this whole process works for you. It sounds like all is well in your writing world.

Um - a little bit about me: I live in the Pacific NW, in WA state; I read like crazy and have done some reviewing like you. Free books are always welcome in my house. I'm an unpublished author, but am busy developing a few ideas that are coming together rather well.

Come over to my blog at http://pagesofdiscovery.blogspot.com whenever you get a chance.

-Amy

Anita said...

Thanks for the heads-up on reading the first book first...on some series it doesn't matter, so I usually don't let it bother me.

Jonathan Maiocco said...

Hey Jacob! I didn't really know how to contact you about the contest, so I'm leaving a comment here... well, no duh, figuring your reading this. lol.
Anywho, yeah, that would be awesome if I could be part of the "tribe"! It sounds great... I don't know what would really be happening, but I would love to help if I can. Just let me know what to do (in this kind of contest, there needs to be one leader and tons of "servants" if you get what I mean). Do you mind if I invite two people to also join? One person is "CSon" who won 4th place last year, and the other is "BDEastman" who won third place last year. Is that OK? And if not, that perfectly fine... I just thought it might help our cause.
Just let me know! And, btw, just comment on my blog to notifyabout everything, and I'll be sure to read it, and then I'll comment back.
Thanks for the invite!
P.S. Is your team called the "Nightwing Tribe"? I read something like that on the comments section. And, is there a website for the tribe?
Thanks again!