“Atherton: Rivers of Fire” by Patrick Carman (Little, Brown Young Readers,
9780316166720, $16.99, ages 9 and up)
This second book concludes the mighty adventure of Atherton, a clockwork
island world constructed as the grandest experiment of a seemingly mad
scientist. Three young friends have survived the great cataclysm that
wracked Atherton in the first book, “Atherton: The House of Power,” and now
they risk unimagined dangers to search out their home’s secret creator and
learn about their hidden origins.
Patrick Carman is the author of the “Land of Elyon” fantasy series, and his
first “Atherton” novel was one of last year’s true stand-out books for young
readers. “The House of Power” introduced a tried-and-true protagonist in the
plucky Edgar, an orphaned boy who found the courage to question all the set
assumptions of his people and his home.
But Carman’s most fascinating creation is Atherton itself: with its three
steep, cliff-divided tiers and its rigid plantation system, the floating
island had the appearance of a carefully designed habitat, like some
classroom terrarium stocked with moss and snails. And that’s really what it
was: a sort of bottle-country built by an ambitious but somewhat unhinged
man. The island’s constructed nature became apparent when it suddenly began
to convulse: mountains slid down into the earth, and the whole land became a
broad and level stretch of ground.
In this new book, Edgar and his friends Isabel and Samuel work to help the
people of Atherton adjust to their abruptly changed world. There are strange
creatures to combat, and Edgar takes up the quest to find the mysterious Dr.
Harding, who made Atherton in the first place and who delivered all its
inhabitants there by unknown means. It’s grand and thrilling conclusion to
the story.
Carman’s “Atherton” books work on multiple levels. They’re gripping
adventure stories with a cast of plucky young heroes, for sure, but they
also play out, in fantasy terms, as a clever parallel of real-world
inequalities. At first, Edgar and his fellows are farmers who raise food for
the powerful people living above them, and they receive very little in
return, save for precious rainwater. As Atherton collapses, however, and
their world becomes “equal,” everything changes in the lives of the island’s
inhabitants, and everyone must adapt to this flattening. For readers who
want to explore it, it’s a fantastic metaphor for a globalizing economy.
This is smart, excellent storytelling as well as totally engrossing fantasy
adventure.
Review by
Mark David Bradshaw, April 30, 2008
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