Perma-Bound

"This debut novel, when offered to publishers at the manuscript stage, spurred an impressive bidding war. Why the fuss? For one thing, it?s partly set at Oxford University, the same backdrop Philip Pullman used in The Golden Compass (1996). For another, its focus on a coveted artifact evokes Dan Brown?s adult blockbuster The Da Vinci Code (2003). Blake, an American adolescent visiting modern-day Oxford, stumbles upon Endymion Spring?one portion of ""the most legendary, sought-after book in the world."" As Blake attempts to complete the fragment while evading cutthroat members of an antiquarian book society, flashbacks reveal the book?s fifteenth-century connections to the original printing press, recounted by an apprentice of Gutenberg himself. Though the pulse-racing descent into Oxford?s subterranean library stacks is thrilling, not every reader will respond to the novel?s scholarly atmosphere, and subplots intended to flesh out Blake?s character (mainly his angst over his parents? separation) seem stiff and forced. Once the buzz surrounding this heavily promoted fantasy subsides, look for it primarily in the hands of bibliophiles who enjoyed Cornelia Funke?s Inkheart (2003) and Inkspell (2005)." Gr 4-7-In 1452, a young printer's devil toils for his master, Herr Gutenberg, who is in the process of printing a Bible. On a suitably dark and cold night, sinister Johann Fust arrives at Gutenberg's shop with a mysterious wooden chest decorated with dragons and serpents' heads. In a parallel story set at Saint James College in Oxford in the present day, Blake, a professor's son, discovers a wordless book with the title Endymion Spring, which was the printer's devil's name. The present-day narrative and the story of Endymion Spring cleverly intertwine as Blake discovers that the book is the key to all of the world's knowledge. As Endymion lies hidden in Gutenberg's shop one night, Fust opens the wooden chest and, because of what Endymion learns, he is forced to flee. In an incredibly effective action scene, he eludes capture. Back in the present, Blake and his sister, Duck, find themselves pursued by a mysterious "Person in Shadow" and discover, as it leads them into the depths of the Bodleian Library, that Endymion Spring's book has a mind of its own. Even if the promise of the clearly intriguing premise is not quite fulfilled, this book is certain to reach an audience looking for a page-turner, and it just might motivate readers to explore the true facts behind the fiction.-Tim Wadham, Maricopa County Library District, Phoenix, AZ Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.