Spellbinders: Break the Game Series: Spellbinders #2 Published by Random House Children's Books on June 18, 2024
Genres: Juvenile Fiction / Action & Adventure / General, Juvenile Fiction / Fantasy & Magic, Juvenile Fiction / Humorous Stories
Pages: 400
Find the Author: Website, Goodreads, Amazon
Goodreads
It takes more than magic to make a hero, in the next installment of this hilarious and epic illustrated series. One not-so-chosen champion and his mystical friends must cross the multiverse and harness a dangerous power to defeat a mysterious new enemy.
"My favorite new fantasy series.”
—Max Brallier, #1 New York Times bestselling author of the Last Kids on Earth seriesAfter leveling up from basement roleplaying games to saving an entire magical realm, 12-year-old Ben isn’t happy returning to his ordinary life of homework and chores. So when his very un-magical LARP session is crashed by monstrous frog-men from another dimension, he can't wait to get back into hero mode.
Someone is after all the Spellbinder’s books, which grant the users — including Ben — epic reality-shifting powers. Ben, Niara, Merv, Drake, and their new friend Agnes must embark on an epic quest to save the books and their owners. But while hopping across different realms may be Ben’s idea of a totally awesome spring break, it’s tough to be an ordinary kid among extraordinary heroes. Especially when fighting for the fate of the universe seems to consist mostly of finding fun new ways to get them all killed, from zombie rats to pool noodle squids, to a mysterious Big Bad controlling everything from behind the scenes. How do you win the game when someone else is rolling the dice?
Review:
I loved the first installment of Lux and loved this even more. We find ourselves on a quest to assist all the realms against someone collecting the Spellbinder books, and this quest is complete of friendship, songs, Drake Ransom’s rugged good looks, humor, and twists that make the middle grade so wonderful to read. And some of the twists made me gasp aloud. The story is funny, and there is plenty of questing adventure. New characters, gorgeous graphics, and details helped me envision the story as I read and enhanced the feel of a tabletop gaming book. I enjoyed this laugh-out-loud book and recommend it to middle-grade boys who want to read funny, adventurous, and fantasy fiction books like this one.
About Andrew Auseon
Andrew Auseon is a writer and game developer with years of experience building worlds and creating memorable characters. An author of acclaimed novels for young people, his works have been chosen for lists of distinguished literature and nominated for numerous awards. He’s worked in video game development for 15 years and written and produced games in many genres for many platforms. In his free time, he plays board games and teaches courses in interactive narrative and digital storytelling. He lives in Washington, D.C.
