Thursday 22 May 2014

The Eye of Neptune

Monster Odyssey: The Eye of Neptune
Jon Mayhew
London, Bloomsbury, 2013, 250p

Prince Dakker is thrilled to discover that his mentor and guardian, Count Oginski, has been secretly working on an underwater vehicle, the first ever sybmarine. When their home is attacked, Dakkar escapes on the submersible, pent on finding who is responsible and on getting Ogsinki back. Along the way, he faces dangerous foes, both human and sea-creatures, but worst of all is Cryptos, an sinister enemy who wants the submarine for himself.

During the first half of the book, Dakkar is on his own, chasing after the ship he suspects might have kidnapped his guardian. Despite having the whole ocean to play with, I found this section rather dull and lacking in creative originality. Then, Dakkar is joined by the feisty Georgia. whose uncle has been working with Oginski and has also gone missing. The young duo team up to discover the truth, and finally some dialogue is created, which adds some excitement to the book. But I still felt Georgia lacked personality, and was a bit of a prototype of the female sidekick rather than anything particularly new and exciting.

I mostly skim read this book - I just coundn't engage with it and I can't work out if I genuinely didn't like it because of the story or if I went into reading it with a negative attitude due to the shiny cover. Unfortunately, The Eye of Neptune was not the gripping adventure I had hoped it might be.

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