Pendragon: The Merchant of Death

#36
Title: Pendragon: The Merchant of Death
Author: D. J. McHale
Publisher: Aladdin
Year: 2002
Genre: Young adult fantasy
375 pages

I'm sure that there is a way to re-sequence LiveJournal entries but I'm going to waste my time on other things. This book was #36.

There are a number of books entitled "Pendragon" out there, including Lawland's Pendragon Cycle. You'd do best to search for this series by the name of each installment.

The Merchant of Death is the first in the series and sets the grounds for the rest of the series: Bobby Pendragon appears to be a typical popular young teenager, but discovers in a Gaiman-esque scene in an abandoned subway station that he is a Traveler, a sort of interworld, intertemporal good-guy who has a role in the battle between good and evil. This premise is okay and generally well-executed. The device of having Bobby writing to his friends on magical parchment also works reasonably well.

The major problems with this first volume are the overuse of artificial-sounding teenager language in the narration, the formulaic feel of the plot, and implausible worldbuilding that decreases suspension of disbelief. To give two examples of the latter problem, one more throwaway and one more crucial: One of Bobby's earliest observations of Denduron is that it has three suns, which set simultaneously in three quadrants of the sky. Other than a chance convergence I don't see how this is possible. It has no relevance to the plot, so its only actual function is to irritate the reader. More critically, Bobby and his Uncle Press endure a dangerous and harmful journey from the subway to Denduron via a flume that deposits them atop a snowy mountain surrounded by evil creatures called quigs. Later it is revealed that there is a second flume, much more convenient to the village and with no mention of quigs. Apparently Uncle Press didn't choose this flume solely because the author needed Bobby and Press to be separated. This is poor plotting and not compelling.

I don't mean to be overly critical. This series is clearly beach reading, not enduring literature. It's entertaining enough, and judging by the reviews online, children enjoy it even when critics don't. The next few volumes should show whether this is a picaresque series in which a world is saved per volume, or whether a larger plot unfolds.