Spider Riders: Book Two: Quest of the Earthen
Grade 4-6–Hunter Steele, the protagonist introduced inSpider Riders: The Shards of the Oracle(Newmarket, 2005), is still in the center of the earth in the city of Arachnia and has joined the Spider Riders, but still must prove that he is truly one of them. With his battle spider named Shadow, he goes on a quest that will be familiar to anyone with even a passing acquaintance with fantasy tropes. Along with the other riders, he must recover five shards of the Oracle, a vague source of power, from the evil Mantid, a stock giant insect villain with visions of world domination, and his minions, known as Insectors. Mantid has the support of a large blob of pale, pulsating gelatinous substance that communicates telepathically and is known as Fungus Brain. It should be clear at this point how derivative this plot is, with echoes of Garth Nix's far superior The Keys to the Kingdom series and Suzanne Collins's The Underland Chronicles (both Scholastic), all of which are better choices. And if overly familiar plot elements weren't enough, this volume doesn't stand alone. The writing is pedestrian, but the dialogue and the glib tone will be familiar to children raised on Saturday morning cartoon fare. In fact, the TV series based on this series is scheduled for broadcast this fall and will be in the popular Japanese anime style, so limited purchase of this title may be appropriate to anticipate popular demand.–Tim Wadham, Maricopa County Library District, Phoenix, AZCopyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.