About the Author

DJ MacHale is the writer/creator of Nickelodeon's wildly successful children's horror show 'Are You Afraid of the Dark?'. He lives in Marina Del Rey, California.

Reviews

Gr 5-8-Bobby Pendragon plunges once more into his fast-moving, rip-roaring, and basically pointless story in this sixth volume in the series. Here he and his ally, the beautiful, athletic teen-warrior Loor, team up to save Loor's home world of Zadaa from the despicable shape-changing demon Saint Dane. The villain has hatched a plot to cut off all the water from Loor's people, instigating a civil war between the thirsty Batu and the underground Rokador, with whom the Batu have until now kept an uneasy truce. The plot is about as deep as a cookie sheet, and the characterizations are even shallower-except for Pendragon, who grows as a character when he decides that he must learn to fight, and he asks Loor to teach him. Meanwhile, Saint Dane also bedevils Bobby's friends Mark and Courtney back home in Stony Brook, CT. This series treads water throughout most of its volumes; when readers reach the end of this episode, they're only microscopically farther along in the story arc than when they began. Still, the action never stops for long, and Zadaa is sure to hold the interest of fans of the series.-Walter Minkel, New York Public Library Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information.

The sixth title in the Pendragon series by D.J. MacHale, The Rivers of Zadaa, marks the books' move to hardcover (and the audio versions of the first six books were released last month, reviewed July 11). Picking up where Black Water ended, this tale finds Bobby moving into the territory of Zadaa as he continues to follow Saint Dane, who has escalated tensions between the Rokador and the Batu. Bobby discovers unimagined powers as a Traveler. Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information.