Jake Ransom and the Skull King's Shadow
(The Jake Ransom series, Book 1)
James Rollins
HarperCollins
Fiction, YA Fantasy/Adventure
***
DESCRIPTION: Three years ago, Jacob Ransom's parents disappeared in the jungles of Central America while exploring an archaeological site at the ill-omened
Mountain of Bones. Now, he immerses himself in studies to follow in their footsteps, hoping to become an archaeologist himself so he can some day continue their work...
and, perhaps, finally find some answers. His older sister Kady, on the other hand, seems bound and determined to forget, obsessed with cheerleading and shopping.
Despite that, she, like Jake, still secretly wears the last thing their parents sent home: a strange Mayan coin, cut in half, recovered from the dig side.
One day, a strange invitation arrives in the mail, inviting Jake and Kady to the opening of a new museum exhibit in London. The artifacts came from their parent's final
dig on the Mountain of Bones, and having the orphaned Ransom children there will give a big boost to the media coverage. Despite some strange feelings about the
corporate sponsors and peculiar timing, they accept the invitation... and find themselves swept away on a wild adventure in a lost land. In Calypsos, Jake and Kady
discover trilobites and dinosaurs, living descendants of many of Earth's lost civilizations, and an enemy that may be as old as time itself.
REVIEW: I picked this up because of the Indiana Jones vibe of the cover; I wanted a nice, rollicking yarn without too much brooding depth or
complicated story. Jake is a likable hero, and his adventures move at a fair clip. His sister, on the other hand, plays more like a stereotype than a sibling; we
first meet her wearing a cheerleader outfit, making eyes at the captain of the football team, and for most of the book that's who she remains. For that matter, the
"tribes" of Calypsos feel more like Saturday morning cartoon impressions of civilizations than actual representatives. The Vikings wear horned helmets which, in
actuality, are very rarely if ever actually associated with real Vikings, and the overall cultural attitudes seem very modern; women and men treat each other as
equals, and servant/master distinctions and class divides appear nonexistent, which doesn't sound like any ancient culture I've read about. As for the prehistoric life
forms, while the nature of Calypsos explains how creatures from so many eras wound up together, it doesn't explain why an author who claims to have done his homework -
and who has written many popular adult novels, where research standards are presumably higher - uses the obsolete term "brontosaurus" for giant saurians, unless Jake
Ransom's paleontology books are a few decades out of date. (The currently accepted name, Apatosaurus, has been in use since at least the 1980's.) He also mistakes
the largest flying animal ever known to science: it is not the pteranodon, but rather Quetzalcoatlus. Then there's
the old modern-kid-dazzles-rustic-natives-with-modern-devices gimmick. The natives of Calypsos have some technological (or rather alchemical) knowledge, so they didn't
behave quite as stupidly as some "rustic natives" in Young Adult books with this crutch, but it still got tiresome. At least Jake is taken aback by the unpredictable
manner in which modern science and Calypsos alchemy reacted; for once, the modern kid doesn't have all the answers, and was forced to admit that maybe people who don't
have batteries and iPods just might know a few things he doesn't.
Those flaws aside, the story at least moves fairly fast, and Rollins presents a few nice ideas here and there. Naturally, the ending sets the Ransom kids up for a
sequel, which will probably involve their new friends from Calypsos. I don't expect I'll read the next book, but I wasn't entirely disappointed with this one. It
would've been nice if Rollins had tried a little harder for authenticity... or originality.
You might also enjoy:
The Alexander Cold trilogy (Isabel Allende, YA Fiction - Young Alex finds danger, adventure, and mysticism alive and well in the remote corners of the world)
Everworld series (K. A. Applegate, YA Fiction - Four Chicago teens are pulled into a world where lost cultures and elder gods still exist)
The Ancient One (T. A. Barron, YA Fiction - While protecting a grove of ancient redwoods from loggers, a girl is swept back in time)
Jurassic Park (Michael Crichton, Fiction - An experimental theme park uses DNA sampling to create a living dinosaur zoo)
Cat-A-Lyst (Alan Dean Foster, Fiction - An actor on vacation accidentally discovers a portal to a world of modern-day Incas)
The Encyclopedia of the Ancient Americas (Jim Green, Fiona Macdonald, Philip Steele, and Michael Stotter, YA Nonfiction - An overview of the peoples of ancient North, Central, and South America)
The Maya: Life, Myth and Art (Timothy Laughton, Nonfiction - Ancient South American cultures)
Ringworld (Larry Niven, Fiction - A man, a woman, and two aliens explore a vast artificial habitat, constructed as a ring orbiting a distant sun)
Airborn and Skybreaker (Kenneth Oppel, YA Fiction - A teen boy in a world of massive hydrium airships has wild adventures)
The Transall Saga (Gary Paulsen, YA Fiction - A modern boy's survival skills are tested when he finds himself alone in an alien landscape)
The Diadem series (John Peel, YA Fiction - Drawn from different worlds, three kids learn they have magical powers and a prophetic destiny)
Journey to the Center of the Earth (Jules Verne, Fiction - A professor and his assistant travel through a dormant volcano into a lost world)
Leepike Ridge (N. D. Wilson, YA Fiction - A river's current washes a boy into a hidden cave linked to an ancient secret and ruthless modern treasure hunters)
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