ND WILSON

The prose is fine, sometimes feeling like the author is trying a bit too hard.

The characters are fine. Everyone who is written to be annoying is annoying and you like everyone you're supposed to like, generally speaking. I definitely wouldn't call what any of the characters go through an "Arc".

The plot is serviceable if a bit bland. It's helped slightly by the vast array of references to other cultures that someone more versed in Mesopotamian folklore would likely have a much better time with. This book struggles from "and then this happens" terribly. The characters are mcguffins carrying mcguffins.

The plot jumps from situation to situation, barely giving you any time to understand the what's going on before there's another set of jangling keys hung in front of you. You could cut half the side characters from the cast and I would not care in the slightest. The book tries so hard to get everything in that it feels a mile wide and an inch deep.

Questions are barely asked about the true nature and purpose of the shadow organization the siblings are trying to join, and the questions that are asked are answered either with hostility (because these kids aren't welcome here for reasons...) or with vagaries.

As I mentioned earlier, characters don't go through arcs here. A certain character is revealed to be on the bad side, but very little predicates the betrayal other than a vague sense of entitlement to power over the secret society. But because we're not told the details of the order, we don't really understand the depths of why that betrayal may or may not be worthwhile.

The evil scientist is evil because he's evil. The only scenes we get before the final confrontation are stereotypical "ooo look silly and frightening experiments on Dan!" But Dan literally does nothing this whole book.

Especially knowing this book has 2 sequels I wish that this installment did more to establish everything. This could have been paired down and focused to great value.

But I’ll keep reading the series, probably.

Cyrus (Cy or Rus), Antigone (Tig or Tigger), Daniel, and Dr. Pheonix (What a sick sounding name, right?), I loved. The writing style was simple. The humor, witty. BUT...

Several things disturbed me, and I was THIS close to DNFing this book. Okay, so we have a magical tooth, keys, and people who can't die? Not to mention there is mentioning of the possibility of raising the dead?? With the dragon's tooth?? And it slips God into all this at random points. However...get ready...all this takes place in...our world????? OUR WORLD. PEOPLE FROM CALIFORNIA. Not a fantasy world where everything is fake, even. OUR world.

And I'm not bashing this book, please understand. I did really enjoy it, and if you don't mind all that magical type stuff, give it a try. It's just not for me.

(I had originally marked this as a DNF but finally struggled through to the end.)

Reread Feb 2026 - comfort food

evil. Wonderful series!

it was okay, but I wouldn't read it again

This book kept me reading , great fantasy .

but for whatever reason i had a hard time getting through it... probably just me. i felt pretty confused most of the time, hence the 3 stars.

But I realized later that this kind of set the mood for the whole book. Pretty good read, though a little dark and sinister at times. I'd recommend for teens.

SO MUCH FUN. Wilson took the classic tale of "Treasure Island" and made it an Indiana Jones-meets-fantasy-meets...N.D. Wilson? If you know the story of Treasure Island, this book is a thrill. I am well acquainted with the classic tale and so when certain story elements were used, or a certain character introduced, I had to throw the book for a second so I could get my blood pressure back under control. If you don't know Treasure Island, I'm sure the story would be just as fun. You just won't get the clues.

I couldn't rate this book as well as I would like, though, due to a strong presence of magic. I don't read books with magic/spirits/sorcery/mind control in them, but I couldn't put this one down...
So: don't start it unless you are okay with:
1. Mind control
2. Human-animal melding to control a super race (reminiscent of Fangs in the "Wingfeather Saga")
3. A dragon's tooth (duh) with magical properties (also duh). Those magical properties include turning on toasters that no longer work, killing the unkillable (pirates of the Caribbean-ish), and raising the dead. Further spoiler: no dead are raised in this book. Though they talk about people abusing the power of the dragon's tooth in the past and that this is why the bad guy wants it, nothing like this actually happens. However, if you read the Epilogue, it is clear the bad guy is about to begin raising the dead, and his choice of the dead to raise about made me need to read the sequel. These books have a shocking ability to make me break the rules.
4. A skull from a Nephilim-style bad guy in an African collection with an immortal soul that is still bearing a grudge against the guy who killed him that takes the form of turning the lights off, whispering like wind, and in the end, the skull falls on its side and its teeth are snatching at the characters to get at them. Slightly creepy.
5. Immortal and "transmortal" characters that can't die. Some of them you hate for this (why can't bullets just work!) and some you're like "No!!! We can't lose him here!" and then you realize they can't die...

Anyway, this book is great. I think I had a few mini-heart attacks. But there is too much a content concern for me to give it a higher rating.

Oh. Oh, this was good.

So, I read Treasure Island earlier this month, and the similarities between it and this book are fascinating. Main character's family runs a motel. (An inn in Treasure Island.) A mysterious man arrives, and his name is William Skelton, or "Billy Bones." (His name is Billy Bones!?) Billy Bones is killed in the night by a group of old acquaintances led by a blind guy who is also killed. (The blind guy and everything?!) But the old rogue leaves something very interesting to the main character. From here the plot takes a very different path, but the main characters do find an ally with the last name Lawney. (Like Treasure Island's Trelawney?!) Much later in the book we meet the cook, called Big Ben Sterling. Sterling. (Like sterling Silver!?!) Later, a kid accidentally eavesdrops on Sterling and another character having an incriminating conversation while eating an apple. (The apple barrel scene in Treasure Island!) We also get another scene strongly evoking the "Flint's ghost" scene in, again, Treasure Island! WHAT?!? And there's more. I have not read "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde," but I know the general concept, and this book gave some of those same impressions! Is this secretly a Stevenson fan piece? I don't know. I don't know! And the book's main plot, from what I can tell, is pretty original aside from these. But it was SO fun to collect these connections! I kinda want to read more Stevenson books just to see if there are any I missed!

I absolutely adore this author's writing style! It tickles my fancy in every way! The descriptions are vivid and engagingly worded, and the dialogue is fun, followable, and realistic! And the occasional addition of witty one-liner quotes such as "Fish would know the taste of math," brings me so much enjoyment! It's all brilliant! Strange personal preference--I like how the author didn't seem to feel limited in his perspectives at all! He let the narrative and viewpoints be whatever they needed to be! I really liked that!

The story, world, and characters were all very original and enjoyable. The villain was nice and creepy. The main characters were fun, competent, and just the right amount of reckless. (Though, I did choose to mentally age them up a year because twelve felt just a little too young.) One other thing I thought was that the cover did not match the character description, which is minorly irritating. If you know me you know I'm a sucker for large and varied casts, and this book totally delivered with its wonderful array of side characters! The plot was engaging, the action scenes had me wide eyed and gasping! (Especially a certain part in the climax involving jumping over fireballs! (You know it's gonna be good when the author says it "seemed to happen in slow-motion!"))

So, I think this brain-dump proves that I enjoyed this book. A lot. I don't know how soon I'll read the second book, but I plan to. The cliff-hanger was not too evil, so I don't feel compelled to read it just yet. But seriously, I'll be reading more from this author for the writing alone!

Tried it as a family read-aloud, but it was too creepy and confusing for most of us. I love N.D. Wilson's nonfiction, but every time I try his fiction, I conclude that I must not appreciate his style or something. It was action-packed, but felt like it was trying to be action-packed. So much going on, so many characters, but not much character depth. We didn't care about what was happening some of the time. And the bad guys were disturbingly creepy. Not desirable to me in a kids' book. Guess I'll stick with Wilson's non-fiction!

It was a bit too creepy for our likes and hard to follow. I finished the book on my own but was not very impressed. I felt like I didn't really know the characters, I couldn't keep track of them, and the plot was full of common tropes.

The only reason I subtracted a star is because of how fast and hard information comes flying at you -- it's difficult to retain it all at once. But the plot was great, characters are very interesting, and the scenes are vivid.

N.D. Wilson is a legend.

Highly recommend! This book is phenomenal! Just go read it!

I found this book around the time I was getting into the swing of reading and I thought, 'That looks interesting'. If I'm being completely honest I grabbed it because 'dragon' was in the name. But this book was better, than interesting. Cyrus and his sister Antigone, were 'just kids' but with a lot more than that. After Cyrus gets the fright of his life, their world turns upside down. Now their brother Daniel is missing, or worse, they are unwanted in their new world, they have the strangest immortal snake friend, and their mother is still in a coma. What to do?

I think this is my jam.

This book wasn’t perfect, it was confusing at times, it was hard to keep all of the names straight, but I really do think it’s all just for build up because that ending was really well done and now I think the next two books will be much more clear. And I have read books by this author before, and this is how most of his series start, and so I have faith the rest of the series will be more organized.

I’m super excited to see all of the characters come together and make an incredible team, I mean we have a colorful bunch to work with here, it will be fun to see how Mr. Wilson works on their relationships.

4.5 good, but it yapped a little lol

I read this book because I had some students who kept mentioning it and really loved the author, so I thought I would try a couple of his books. I'm rating it at 2 stars rather than 1 because there are maybe some helpful things in it? Maybe if I read further in the series more would become clear? It's a hopeful 2 stars, but it might not be worth that.

First, in general it's really dark. There's destruction and mayhem and possible death around every corner. If memory serves, at one point the two main kids were lugging an injured, possibly dying man accross a campus where they were supposed to be safe. Instead of getting help from the people there, they were mocked.

Perhaps this is on purpose, but the author must have a really low view of almost everyone, because almost no one in this book is actually helpful. While not everyone is outright evil and bent on the destruction of the protagonist, no one also seems to really care if he lives or dies. And again, it's maybe my memory lacking, but I don't remember anyone in the book who is actually good. No one that you're really cheering for. Everyone is just generally terrible, some are just slightly less terrible than others. Again, it's possible that was on purpose, but it makes for really unpleasant reading. And if there is a purpose, the author failed to make that clear.

Very fun.

I love this book so much!

The lore for this book is our world—with all its twist and turns and myths and legend. Plus, it’s great fun to read a uniquely American fantasy book.

I would give it ten stars if I could. It is really exciting, the writing is great, and the plot is great. It should be a classic. In my opinion, the first half of it is almost perfect and any earthly author couldn't have done it better. The only problem with it is that the series isn't finished and it doesn't look like it's ever going to be.

But i only like certain parts. For the most part it was boring. Had to read several part multiple times to get what was happening cause i kept space out. Doubt I’ll read the rest of this series.

Full of adventure, humor, and danger; this book encapsulates important biblical themes pertaining to family, trials, courage, and the value of life and its God-given pleasures.

That I've read at least. Not quite LOTR or Narnia level, but a lot going for it. The narrative emphasizes pain, sacrifice, and boldness in a way that is good for the imagination.
But I can't ignore “Sic Semper Draconis.” If you know you know. If only coming up with a good catchphrase was as easy as retconning language.