Sunday, June 08, 2008

Gods of Manhattan


Mebus, Scott. 2008. Gods of Manhattan.

The 'gods' in question in Scott Mebus' Gods of Manhattan are not Greek gods. Just so you know. They are men and women immortalized by legend and fame and success. The mayor of the gods, of Manhatta a world that is invisible to most mortals, is Alexander Hamilton. (All of the gods started out as mortals, but their fame, their success, their ingenuity made them be reborn as immortal gods in this spirit world residing side by side with modern Manhattan.) It's a rather fun premise, for the most part. The gods, these immortal gods, are in danger--real danger. Though immortal, a way has been discovered to kill them, murder them. A special knife that threatens to end everything...unless they get some help from a rather extraordinary mortal, a young boy, Rory.

Rory is your typical hero. He doesn't want to be a hero. He doesn't want the responsibility of saving the world. But with the proper motivation, he may prove to be hero material after all. Like quite a few heroes, he has a younger sister. And this sister plays quite an important role. This butt-kicking heroine loves to be strong and brave. The idea thrills her. She carries around a sword called 'Butt-kicker' for example. Definitely spunky.

I won't get into the particulars now. But fans of Percy Jackson and Fablehaven might enjoy this one. It has history and fantasy colliding...and the result is mostly fun and entertaining. It is the first in a series, and I would imagine that the second one will be even better.

© Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

give the whole book away why don't you