Title: Seven Wonders Journal: The Select + The Orphan
Author: Peter Lerangis
Genre/s: Middle Grade, Young Adult, Action, Adventure, Novella
Released Date: April 22, 2014
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Synopsis:
The Seven Wonders adventures continue in this print bind-up of The Select and The Orphan. The Select tells the story of thirteen-year-old Burt Wenders, the first documented carrier of the G7W gene, and his fated voyage to the island that would eventually come to house the Karai Institute. In The Orphan, learn the story of Daria, orphaned at a young age and enslaved by the Babylonians, and her valiant battle to escape the only city she's ever called home. These titles are together in print for the first time ever.With key historical details and plenty of backstory surprises, this is a perfect addition to the library of new and continuing fans of the New York Times Seven Wonders series by Peter Lerangis, author of three stories in The 39 Clues series.
My Thoughts on:
The Select
If the prophecy is true, I will die before reaching my fourteenth
birthday.
If the prophecy is true, I will cause the destruction of the world.
The island drew us here. It will draw others. Like Father. People who
seek the truth. It must not end like this. So I leave this account for those
who follow. And I pray, more than anything, that I have time to finish.
The Select is the recovered
journal of Burt Wender as he recorded his journey, along with his father and a
few other ship crew, to find a cure for his mysterious illness.
Burt, just like Jack, Aly, Cass
and Marco, used to be a normal kid, before the signs of G7W genes showed up and
messed with their future plans of growing up. He was great with language and he’s
a very smart kid. But if you have read the first book, The Colossus Rises, you’d
know that they didn't succeed in finding a cure. But despite that fact, their
mission wasn't futile because they found the island, where the Karai Institute
and the other Select is currently taking refuge.
It was a good short story, I have
to admit, but I was unimpressed by how little the new information it revealed,
contradicting Peter Lerangis’ Note to Readers, about how it will have an “insane
amount” of effect to the current story.
My Rating
The Orphan
So I kept singing. I sang as if my life depended on it.
It always had and it always would.
Daria’s friend, Frada, was dying
and there’s only one thing she knew that could save her: the magic pomegranates
from the Tree of Enchantment. But in order for her to get the cure, she needed
to do what no one has ever dare, let alone, done successfully. She has to steal
a fruit from the ruthless king’s most-valued possession or face the wrath of
King Nabu-na’id.
We met Daria in book two, Lost in
Babylon, when the four Select traveled into a parallel dimension where the
ancient Babylon still existed. She was the king’s singer and interpreter. In
this short story, we will know her more; what her life was like before she met
the Selects and how an orphan like her, who despise the king to the bones, ended up serving in the king’s palace.
It is, by far, a much better
story than the first. The plot was more complex and thrilling with lots of
stealthy missions and prison break riots. I still don't know how this will have an effect on the main series but this is a good enough story to get lost into while waiting for the release of the next book.
My Rating
