With this first entry in his Beyonders series, Brandon Mull (the Fablehaven series) invents some details and plot twists that even devoted fantasy fans will not have seen before. A hero entering a passageway to an alternate universe is not new. But a teenager traveling through the digestive tract of a hippopotamus? That's new. Displacers who can have a head in one place and their limbs in another? Seed people who can replant the seed at the base of their necks and "resprout," with all of their former memories intact? These are just a few of the pleasures that await you.
Thirteen-year-old Jason Walker, who works in a zoo in Vista, Colo., thinks he hears music coming from the hippo's enclosure. As he gets closer, the notes seem to be emanating from the hippo itself. Then, before he knows it, he falls into the animal's tank, the hippo opens its giant jaws, and down the hatch he goes, traveling through the animal's internal organs, and exiting on a riverbank in a world called Lyrian. Nine musicians on a barge float by, the source of the music Jason heard. It's the perfect start to an adventure filled with such reality benders. The author offers clues to the oddities of this alien land through the strange strains of the music and the attire of the other spectators. The first thing Jason learns is that the musicians are floating toward a dangerous waterfall. He tries to stop them and discovers that he's meddling with Fate; the townspeople resent his attempt at heroics, and he must flee the scene. Jason takes refuge in a remote and immense structure called the Repository of Learning, where a bespectacled Loremaster greets him. The Loremaster tells him about this world he's entered, and about its emperor, a dark wizard called Maldor. He also tells Jason of a forbidden room on an upper floor, which, of course, the teen investigates. There he finds a book bound in living flesh. The book describes a single Word, which, if spoken in the presence of the emperor, will lead to Maldor's undoing. The book also gives Jason the first syllable, "a." The search for the other five syllables of the Word leads, naturally, to a quest. Jason also believes that his successful completion of the Word could lead to his return home to his family, his friends and his beloved dog.
On his journey, Jason meets many unusual people, perhaps none more so than the Blind King, Galloran, who perceives far more than most seeing people can. He is the only man known to have discovered all six syllables of the Word--but with disastrous results and little memory of how or where he obtained them. Still, the Blind King becomes an indispensible ally to Jason; he introduces Jason to Rachel, a fellow Beyonder (as those in Lyrian refer to people from the modern world), and gives them enough information to begin their mission. They travel to remote regions and varied terrain in search of the missing syllables. An island surrounded by Whitelake, on which "nothing floats," protects the fifth syllable; its surface hardens against pressure, but if you remain still, you sink like quicksand. A prophetess protects the sixth syllable, in a hollow tree in the Sunken Lands, with exotic mushrooms that block memory yet can reveal another portion of the mind. Mull invents a complete society and landscape while also making his characters--and his readers--feel that they're never fully on solid ground. He lays the foundation masterfully, parceling out information for readers to puzzle out the developments along with Jason and Rachel--and experience the same betrayals.
Only a rare few in Lyrian believe that Maldor can be conquered, so most have ceased to believe in heroes. In this world ruled by fear, nearly everyone puts Jason and Rachel through a test. Are they trustworthy? And who can Jason and Rachel trust? Yet heroic acts come from unlikely places. Early on, Jason encounters a woman who tells him, "Fair faces and kind words can disguise foul intentions"; still, she directs him to the Blind King's castle. Gradually, as Jason encounters more and more hopeless Lyrians, he begins to feel a "desire to be the hero they needed." One of the book's finest quotes comes from Jasher, a seed person whose many lives have given him great wisdom and who helps Jason and Rachel along the way: "For each of us, destiny is a blend of potential, circumstances, and choices.... You have chosen a heroic path. Walk it without apology."
Humor and wit abound. Jason refers to Lyrian as "Hippoland"; when he and Rachel meet, their bodies of knowledge collide in comical ways (most notably with baseball trivia). Maldor invites his greatest enemies to a seeming paradise, Harthenham, home of the "Eternal Feast." But pleasures breed addiction to delectable dishes like lumba berry pies (nicknamed "hunger berries"), and "obscene gluttony" blots out an army of defectors who've abandoned themselves. Mull constructs medieval-style villages with high fortress walls as well as tiny rural towns where bandits rule the streets. He also connects characters in fascinating ways. In the village of Trensicourt, Jason must battle wits with Chancellor Copernum to gain access to one of the Word's syllables; Copernum turns out to be the Loremaster's son (fodder for future episodes, perhaps). He demonstrates just how insular the Lyrian world is, despite its vast boundaries. Even as Mull constructs the framework for the next two installments, he brings this first Beyonders adventure to a wholly satisfying close.--Jennifer M. Brown