Readers

Friday, November 12, 2010

# Book Review # Kurt Frenier

Book Review: The Study Train: Volume 1 -- Reunion of the Untouchables

Summary from GoodReads: Five hundred years ago, Master Magician Mikhail Pilkington III created a magical flying train, the Study Train. His vision: to take average teenagers aboard, show them the world, and turn them into leaders. Ethan is invited on the train, escaping his miserable life in Switzerland, and soon discovers that the train is all but ordinary. It is filled with magic, secrets, people with interesting histories, and much more. Ethan's intrigue and hunger for knowledge and power catches the attention of a hidden, ancient alliance called the Untouchables. Soon, Ethan learns all their mysteries, powers and sorcery. He stands out from the rest of the students and is recognized as the long-awaited leader for the Untouchables. But his dark side - The Dark Fire Inside - grows and becomes much stronger than anyone thought it would. Ethan gets sucked into a web of conflicts and feuds while battling his own inner feelings. Will he go for power, or turn toward good?


My Review: Ethan is a boy dealing with your typical kid issues: he hates school, has issues with his peers, has family issues and less than perfect parents. 


One night, Ethan is taken on an adventure. A learning adventure that changes the way he sees school, to an extent. This study train was created by a magician for a "Chosen One" to spend several years studying. 


There are many big names on this study train, I was disappointed by some of them. To me, as a history buff, Marilyn Monroe and Yoko Ono have no place being anywhere near Alexander the Great and Thomas Edison. To me, there were other flaws with the chosen *historians* to list.


However, the book is very well written if you can overlook some of the history characters. There is teenage drinking, adventure of course and a little romance. 


An interesting read for a boy so long as you clarify the lines of what history really is. I will be allowing my 11 year old son to read this, but I will make it clear that Marilyn Monroe, Yoko Ono, Elvis Presley and several others are NOT historical figures.


RATING: ♥♥♥

Pages: 210
Softcover

Review copy of this book provided by the author/publisher in exchange for a fair and honest review. In no way did the provision of the book affect the outcome of my review.

No comments:

Post a Comment

Thanks for taking a moment to leave a comment. Please feel free to re-share anything on my blog in any of the social networks. I can't always reply to each comment, but I do read them all.