Pendragon: The Never War

D.J. MacHale (author)

Pocket Books, UK: 2003; 336pp

ISBN: 074346818X

Genre: adventure, science fiction

Issues: war

Bobby Pendragon is a Time Traveller from Second Earth. He and fellow Traveller, Vo Spader, from the water world of Cloral, are on the trail of the evil Saint Daine, a demon who wants to take over all the ‘territories' of time by finding a significant turning point in each territory's development and pushing it towards chaos.

Set on Earth, 1937, and packed with gangsters, threats and thrills, this is a novel for fans of adventure stories who are developing a taste for science fiction.

The third in the Pendragon series, The Never War is rather confusing as a stand alone novel - quite a few assumptions are made about reader awareness of Bobby's past experiences. As it is written in the personal journal style that is popular amongst so many children's writers, the narrative has a limited perspective and the language and writing are fairly pedestrian. Bobby's journals are written rather as he speaks and dominated by dialogue. The narrative is therefore full of clichés, slang and futuristic ‘teen speak'. Vo Spader also introduces a number of terms that are obviously colloquial to Cloral and this attempt to add common phrases and words from another world is often more irritating that effective in terms of pushing the narrative forward or adding depth.

Although he may have greater depth over the series, in this novel Bobby Pendragon appears to be a stereotypical orphaned boy hero who is unsure of himself but learning new skills that will mean he saves the world/s due to his special gifts and fated role. Vo Spader, the typical side-kick, is more action than cognition, driven by a manic hatred of the dark side that took so many of his friends and family. The conclusion is conceptually interesting, exploring briefly the idea that sometimes horrible events are necessary to stop humanity from ultimately destroying itself but overall this is a simple ‘boys' own adventure' style of narrative that will appeal to readers who enjoy Anthony Horowitz's books.

Same series, reading order: The Merchant of Death; The Lost City of Faar.