Slathbog's Gold

This week I finished the latest book published for young readers by Shadow Mountairin: Slathbog's Gold by M. L. Forman. The story of the book was very enjoyable. I have told my friends that M. L. Forman is a Tolkien for young readers. His book contains elves, dwarves, dragons, and even wraiths. Many of the adventures reminded me of similar adventures from Tolkien's The Hobbit or Lord of the Rings trilogy. I think Slathbog's Gold would be the perfect introduction for young readers to get into Tolkien.

The book is about a teenager named Alex who enters a strange shop one day and immediately finds himself going on an adventure. He is now an Adventurer and he is going with a group of seven others to defeat the evil dragon Slathbog, who has terrorized the land. Alex can barely believe that any of this is real. what adds more to his amazement, when he goes into a shop to select a weapon, the shop owner tells him he qualifies for a staff, something only wizards are able to use. Such is the beginning of Alex's road to find his destiny.

There were only two problems I had with this novel. First of all, everybody laughs ALL THE TIME! Now, don't get me wrong. I love to laugh (Ha ha ha!--sorry, Mary Poppins moment there). But the laughter seems a little too unreal at times. I am glad that the eight people on the adventure are always so happy (except Tayo), but by the end of the book the laughter started to distract me.

My only other qualm is that the story went way too fast. On one hand, though, this could be a compliment on the book. It pulled me into the story so much that when I got to the end I thought, "What? It's already over?" The book says that the whole adventure takes a year, but I didn't feel like it because it went so fast. But again, I must remind myself that I have read Tolkien and this book is written for younger readers. Overall, the book was very enjoyable and it definitely deserves itself place among the other Shadow Mountain books that I love so much: such as Fablehaven, Farworld, and 13th Reality. I highly recommend this book to anybody interested in the fantasy genre.