Catching up on 7th grade reading
Search for Senna by K. A. Applegate
"Slowly Senna climbed to her feet. She turned and looked at us. She was maybe a hundred feet away.
I could see confusion on her face.
Her mouth formed the word, 'no.'
And then the entire universe ripped apart."
Mysteriously called together one early morning, a group of average high school kids witness one of their own dragged through a portal in the jaws of a giant wolf, ripped from our world into another. In its wake, the four are brought through as well as the portal closes behind them. David, Christopher, April, and Jalil (almost strangers to one another) find themselves prisoners in Everworld, another dimension created by the old gods when they retired from Earth. Held captive by Loki accused of hiding his captured witch, the four of them search for not only a way to return home but also to save Senna, where she may be.
Land of Loss by K. A. Applegate
"Somehow, someway, for some reason, the old gods of Earth decided to abandon the real world. We didn't know why....
They brought along all the creatures of myth and legend. And they dragged a healthy number of humans across with them, because, hey, what's the point in being a god if there's no one around to kiss your immortal butt."
Alongside Vikings, the stranded teenagers set sail for the realm of the Aztecs and their sun god, Huitzilopoctli. In an effort to secure the release of Odin from Loki's clutches, the Vikings need to take the sun god's head, while the group goes along believing themselves safe amongst the Vikings in case Loki comes for them. Christopher witnesses the horrors of combat and violence and so much worse in the clutches of the Aztecs. The group will need to rely on one another to not only survive the ordeal but escape to find their way home.
Enter the Enchanted by by K. A. Applegate
"We don't exactly know what Everworld is. We know it is a universe constructed by the fugitive gods of ancient Earth. We know that recently alien immortals have found their way in. Interlopers in a private chat room."
Reunited with Senna, April and the group find themselves in the company of Galahad and other knights of the Round Table. Momentarily safe within castle walls, the group looks to Senna for answers and only receives more questions: Is Senna really a witch? Is she their only way home as well as the way for every other being in Everworld to return to Earth? Can they escape Everworld, back to their lives, knowing that the monsters in Everworld can also use her a a portal to escape back to Earth?
Realm of the Reaper by K. A. Applegate
"Then the pig said, 'Give me your apples. Give me your apples or I'll gut you, one by one.'
We gave him our apples.
Just another day in Everworld."
Trudging through the woods, Jalil and the group are swept into an unsettling city at the base of a mountain where the guards face inward, allowing anyone to enter but ensuring no one leaves. The group finds themselves the guests of Hel, daughter of Loki and Ruler of the Viking underworld.
Discover the Destroyer by K. A. Applegate
"There was a stone, a ruby inside by chest. Right where my heart should be. And in six days it would burst into flame and kill me. We were thirsty, hungry, exhausted. Our heads, or at least my head, was full of recent memories of unspeakable horror.
But I was feeling strangely upbeat."
David and the gang are set on a quest by a robbed dragon from Norse mythology - get my treasure back from the fairies, or the rubies swapped for your hearts will ignite and kill you. The five teenagers discover fairy land isn't quite what the real world makes them out to be, finding instead a giant marketplace - the hub of all of Everworld's commerce. Getting back the treasures is never as easy as just asking, and the fairies are too martially superior to swing a sword at. Instead the group will need to come up with something of value to trade, but what can they offer when the fairies not only control hordes of riches but they're also bargaining against the god-eater, Ka-Anor?
Fear the Fantastic by K. A. Applegate
"Whenever Everwold me went to sleep I sort of snapped back into the continuing saga of boring, real-world me.
A great life. I could be dragon food one minute, fall asleep, and still have to face the SAT's.
Here's a news flash: Life isn't fair."
Things had just started to look up for Christopher and the gang: They got their hearts back from a greedy dragon, they escaped an entire city of fairies that hated them, and now they were rich with a backpack full of diamonds. In Everworld though good things don't last forever, as the group finds themselves not only captured by Hetwan aliens but heading right into their territory. Promised immortality by a captured Greek god, the group finds they'll still need to pass right through Ka-Anor's capital to reach the relative safety of Olympus.
Gateway to the Gods by K. A. Applegate
"'Yeah. You know what? Screw their little temper tantrums. I'm tired of this. This is what comes from having your butt kissed for thousands of years. Reality time for the gods starts right now.'
I think all three of us were proud of David at that moment.
And all three of us edged slowly away from him."
Atop Mt. Olympus, the group finds a sanctuary they had yet to experience in their entire time in Everwold: A soothing bath, plentiful food, soft beds. The only downside appears to be the army of Hetwan marching against the Olympian gods who appear to be indifferent to the threat they face. April and the group must work to not only unite the gods but also assist in the effort to drive back the Hetwan army.
Brave the Betrayal by K. A. Applegate
"We had to figure out how to undo our careless mistake. We weren't exactly the serpents in the Garden of Eden, but we had managed to take a bad situation and make it worse.
We had introduced gunpowder."
"Yeah, Jalil, tell yourself that's all there is to it. Tell yourself it's not personal. It's not ego. Real-world reason meets magic? No, real-world, nuclear-age ruthlessness meets Everworld naivete."
The Coo-Hatch, alien mortals kidnapped by their own alien god, have proven themselves a threat but also proven that they can be bargained with. The price - to be returned home and leave Everworld behind. The group is tasked by the Olympian gods to find Senna's mother, a priestess of Isis who can supposedly create a strong enough gateway to the Coo-Hatch home. On their way to the land of the Egyptian gods however, Jalil and the rest will need to cross the African region. Confronted and confounded by a messenger, the group will fight against a simple request but one that also challenges their beliefs - give a sacrifice in honor of the gods. In the real world, Jalil also faces an even more terrifying challenge - asking a girl on a date.
Inside the Illusion by K. A. Applegate
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"They saw me as a witch. A gateway. A mutant freak who lived in both universes at once. To the gods I was a tool or an impediment. But they did not fear me, oh not yet. They didn't fear me because they didn't understand. They didn't see the crucial fact."
The group's entry into Egypt to search for Senna's mother, of course, does not go as smoothly as they hoped. They find Egypt choked and starved due to the damming of the Nile by dwarves. The city itself, its temples and palaces, are ruled by Amazons who are systematically looting everything of value while the Egyptian gods lay dormant. Expecting to find in her mother a power like herself, Senna instead finds a sad and scared woman simply looking to run to the next easiest thing - an utter disappointment in Senna's eyes. but the group will still need her to complete their bargain with the Coo-Hatch and turn the dies in the war with Ka-Anor.
Understand the Unknown by K. A. Applegate
"Didn't want to go to sleep and cross over to the real world, the old world. Just wasn't in the mood to deal with my mother or my job or school or any of those other people and things about my old life that no longer seemed very important."
Having escaped Egypt with a promise from Senna's mother to help send the Coo-Hatch back home, the group sets sail for Olympus. Thanks to Merlin's meddling, and a god-created storm, David and the group are sunk down into Neptune's domain where the psychopathic god rules his denizens through fear. Finding himself against a foe that could drown them with a thought, one that he cannot fight through brute force, David must find another way to save his team and escape.
Mystify the Magician by K. A. Applegate
"'I'll go with you,' I said, startling myself and earning an honest surprised look from Elf Mommy, and a look of warm appreciation from Etain.
'You will?' April said, more puzzled than impressed.
'Yeah. Someone's going to need to show these two heroes how to run away.'"
Arriving back on the surface, the group find themselves on Eire shores in a town under the protection of Merlin himself. A town, in fact, though missing the protection of a god, managed to not only thrive, but even embrace the technology brought to Everworld by the group: electricity, telegraph, even a working cable car. Christopher even finds - love. Though safe for the moment, the group knows it is only a matter of time until Merlin's return. Senna though, unwilling to wait until she is formally captured, begins to enact her master plan, jeopardizing Christopher, the group, and even Everworld itself.
Entertain the End by K. A. Applegate
"Now, here we were, the four of us, planning an invasion of Hel's domain, fading or already gone in the real world, more than likely we'd spend the rest of our lives in Everworld, a place of massive uncertainty, fear, and violence. And on some distant level, I really didn't mind."
April, the group, and a few others escape the capture of Merlinshire by Senna's soldiers but now see a new threat. With the Sennites, armed with real-world technology, now leaderless, and Ka-Anor, the alien God-Eater, both a threat to Everworld, the group decides it is finally time to gather forces to destroy one of the groups before they team-up and destroy Everworld together. To do so means another trip to Hel to rescue a couple of imprisoned gods, a realm none of them are happy about revisiting.
I don't remember exactly what it was that even reminded me of a book series I started in middle school and never finished as the school library only carried the first couple of books. So anyway, reminded, I first checked Amazon to make sure ALL the books were for sale (no point in buying a couple at a time only to find even just one book missing), then splurged and bought them all at once. So, that's what the reading list looked like for a while, though it really should not have taken me three months to finish as the books are meant for folks much younger than me. I know when I got caught up in it, it took me less than a week to finish a book but other things came up and some days I wouldn't read at all. And if you read the last book post, you know what that thing is.
Like another K. A. Applegate series, "Animorphs" (another I also never finished), each book is narrated by a different character from their perspective. Also like "Animorphs," this wasn't the typical teenage power trip fantasy that I was used to at the time. The four main characters are way out of their depth in dealing with the threats Everworld presents. David attempts to deal with it with bravery and confidence, and finds himself severely lacking. He isn't just a child facing battle-hardened adults, but a child fighting monsters and gods. Christopher is the jester of the group, using humor and jokes to deal with his fears. He even acknowledges his fear, just wanting to run away back home to his couch and television. April is the most sensible of the group, the "good girl" who spends her time at school and church and drama club. She attempts to balance out everyone's personalities to help them survive the situation they find themselves. Jalil is the logical one, always looking for a way to make sense of Everworld as fantastical of a place as it is. In the real world, he's plagued by his own demons, a severe case of OCD, but finds himself now fully in control of himself in Everworld.
Everworld itself is a patchwork of different old-world lands and religions and myths pieced together in a way for them all to exist in one seamless space. It's something that little kid me liked to read about, stories of old gods and heroes and monsters - simple stories that older me now knows were simple because myths are how they used to teach, and there's no point in trying to teach someone if the story you're using is just going to go over there head. And little-kid me liked seeing these different ideas blended together - "hey, what if we take these things and just blend them together?" - especially toward the end when we get to see real-world knowledge and tactics challenge the supernatural. I mean, I've probably written stories like that and will continue to write things like that (isn't that what Urban Fantasy is?).
As the series goes along, the group is faced with not the fear of death but even deeper, philosophical questions which Applegate poses to young readers. They find themselves questioning reality and if their Everworld lives have become more important than their real-world selves. Is their lives in a fantasy world really more important than their their mundane lives which is seemingly being left behind? David faces his past trauma to find where his need to always be brave comes from. Christopher, a borderline racist, sexist, alcoholic, and all-around asshole, grows-up after not only meeting people worse than him, but also those that are his better. April's faith is questioned when she calls out to the gods she can see instead of the one the believes in. Jalil's notions of logic, science, and rationalism are challenged constantly by Everworld's fantastical elements which at times hinders the group until he can find a way to balance both in his mind.
The end of the series, now that I somehow know more about books and publishing (thanks writer interviews), makes me think that the deal was only for 12 books and the publisher was unwilling to extend the contract. Who knows, maybe I have that wrong and it did end right where the writer wanted it to end. It just felt unfinished as the major threat was still out there in Everworld and the group simply leaves their real-world selves behind, fully investing in Everworld. Sorry for the 20 year old spoiler. I get that they killed their (possibly) only way back to Earth but I Applegate could have written a way for the group to find a way back if more time was given.
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