Review: Well-Written Sci-Fi/Fantasy Delivers Action and a Great Plot
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 04 12, 2014
“The Academy: Book Two” continues the adventures of Asa Palmer, a student at a sinister school far removed from the rest of humanity. In fact, it exists as a way to keep humanity in check—its graduates go on to protect the secrets of the fatal Wolf Flu, created by an evil businessman named Robert King. Students for the Academy are kidnapped at age 15 and forced into not only dangerous classes to train them for their future life, but also Tasks in which only the strongest and smartest survive.As the novel progresses, Asa struggles with many things—his fear that his best friend Teddy is going crazy, Multipliers who seem to be going rogue, a love triangle, his father’s abandonment, and just surviving the day to day. Wrapped up in it is a Task more deadly than any before, intelligent apes who appear to be getting murdered one by one in the woods, and the mystery of whether King has—or has not—actually been killed.This second entry in Asa’s story is an engrossing read—it’s filled with action, violence, and truly chilling scenes. However, it’s also filled with moments of moving friendship and humanity, which gives the book its emotional resonance and makes whether or not Asa prevails matter to you as a reader. Asa himself is a memorable, appealing hero with amazing powers, including super-strength and echolocation; these save his life more than once. His love for Teddy and his confusion over Charlotte and Jen (a spunky, sometimes frustrating character) make him relatable, as does his pain over his fractured family. The Multipliers, with their cruelty and disregard for fairness or kindness, are a shocking foil against Asa’s goodness, and they prompt you to think about the dark side of what humanity could become.The world of Academy is also detailed and multi-layered. The author’s descriptions bring the surroundings to life, allowing you to slip into the student dorms and the dark woods surrounding the school; the strange creatures that inhabit those woods are also vivid (as well as inventive).I would recommend “The Academy: Book Two” to readers who enjoy action-based fantasy/sci-fi featuring a hero’s coming of age in world fraught with corruption, in the tradition of “The Hunger Games,” the House of Night, and even Harry Potter. However, this books goes much darker and deeper, with more sophisticated prose, and is unique in its own right; it leaves the reader eagerly wondering what will happen in Asa’s next semester.