Friday 28 February 2014

Beyond The Hub The Book of Beasts by John and Carole E. Barrowman PRE-ORDER NOW


Out July 2014 in UK

Paperback edition

Hollow Earth introduced us to twins Matt and Emily Calder who are gifted children with the ability of stepping into their own paintings to explore and quite often to escape.  In the first book Sandy and the children flee from London and into the safe and protective arms of their grandfather Renard, Sandy’s dad on the isle of Auchinmurn.  The twins learn some amazing facts, such as their Mum is an Animare and their Dad was a guardian which gives the twins some amazing talents.  

We learnt about their father Malcolm who was obsessed by the Book of Beasts and the desire to free the creatures locked in Hollow Earth and was bound into a painting when the twins were young.    We learn that there are people after the twins in order to harness their powers in order to free Malcolm from the paintings but they’re saved by a magical creature – a white peryton – that is linked with the history of Auchinmurn.  But now Sandy has disappeared...

In Bone Quill the story took us to the Middle Ages where we learned a lot more about Solon and his role within the story.  Solon’s world existed at the monastery on Auchinmurn Isle, his mentor Animare Brother Renard had cracked, after releasing the animation of the white peryton it came at a cost for the old monk, as his imagination had fractured and he was forced to spend his days locked in a tower for his own protection. 
Solon suspects that there are monks within the monastery that are working with the mysterious hooded figure to find the Key to Hollow Earth.  The story flits as usual between Middle Ages to present day much like the first but in Bone Quill much of the story lies within the history of Auchinmurn monastery.

At the end of the book much happened and people known from the first and second book were injured and worse and although Sandy returned, Matt was still trapped in the painting with the mysterious hooded figure.

The Book of Beasts was said to be the final book of the trilogy and I can’t wait to read it, and find out if Matt makes it back, if the hooded figure finds the key and the location of Hollow Earth or if Solon becomes the hero of the Middle Ages, or will we have to wait for another to be written for all the questions to be answered as I’m sure I heard mention of that last year.  Either way, I can’t wait for July.
These books may be for children but they are exciting enough to captivate the ‘bigger kids’ audience too, like myself.

If you want to wait for the book to hit the shops, you can, or you can pre-order it on Amazon, link below.



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