Thirteen by James Phelan was, in my opinion, sort of rush. I feel like there were major events in every chapter, but they were just there to sort of fill up room to make the book more interesting. The book is part of a series; thirteen books in all, and I wonder how they will go along. Pretty easy read, just kind of scan over the most important parts (in the last chapter, the text is basically nothing). I knew nothing about the author before reading this, so you don’t really have to have any prior knowledge about him. I don’t really know about any other books that have this sort of main idea. There is no odd way of the author writing this book, and the book is mainly for preteens and early teens.
This plot has a couple of interesting turning points, such as when Sam learns about his parents or realizes how he was born. Also, later on, Sam finds himself in the city of New York facing danger at every corner, with explosions all over the place. Then, Sam is found fighting an enemy, Solaris, for control of the Star of Egypt.
The protagonist is Sam, and the antagonists are the Enterprise and Solaris, who want to get their hands on the Last Thirteen dreamers, who hold keystones to the future. They are interesting because they have special abilities that they are technically world famous for. I believe these futuristic dreams to be fantasy, and this whole prophecy and Solaris thing sounds a little farfetched. As far as I know, all of the characters are human. I guess that Sam being all scared and terrified is reasonable, because, well, I don’t think I have to explain that. I’m pretty sure that some of these characters will show up later in the series, I think. The biggest problems the 3 main characters. Sam, Eva, and Alex, faced were the breathtaking news of their origins and lives being changed forever. I hated every character in this mediocrity of black ink on paper, so there was no favorite of mine. This is because none of them really liked sports, and they never had good personalities.
I, personally, do not think that there was any theme or lesson, just an adventurous story with no real purpose, just to try and get people to buy the next book because of the ending; and you want more explanation!
The setting takes place in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, then a special kids school in Switzerland, then in New York City. It also takes place in the present. There are no fake countries or states, so it seems realistic. There is no weird features (unless you count futuristic dreams) except for the fact that it isn’t a book; it’s 200 pages filled with will useless words. I can make out the scene pretty clearly in my head, just with past views of big cities and bedrooms and that sort of thing.
Oh boy, you’re in for it now, everyone! I feel like this book was a waste of my time. Why do I think others would enjoy it? That’s the thing; they wouldn’t! I can’t really think of a single person who likes two people who are part of a secret organization running around New York City with gunshots and explosions at every corner. If people were to enjoy this creation of James Phelan, I think it would be mainly middle school boys, but maybe some girls too. This book definitely engaged my emotions; of pure rage. This book made me so angry how badly it was written, with unnecessary dialogue EVERYWHERE! When reading this book, it was either explanations, everyone yelling at each other, dialogue, or descriptive surroundings of a fight scene. I wonder what the author’s purpose was in this one; It was either 1. Get people to spend more money buy making it impossible to read the first book, get to the end, and their minds to literally force them to buy the next one, or 2. Bore us out of our brains. By the way, if the first one was true, he didn’t achieve that goal. Other books have clarifying endings; not this one. It ended the worst way possible, just forcing you to buy the next books in the series because it has no reason otherwise. Parts that are not believable include how bad this book is and how Sam can just get swooped out of his school by an unofficial group. My favorite part of the book was when I stopped reading it. Not the ending; because it ended. And to finish it off, there would be so much that I would change if I were the author. Such as the decision to write this series. Enough said.