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Crystal Doors #2
Ocean Realm
Gwen and Vic are still learning magic and science on the island of Elantya when they learn that Vic's father has finally made it through the crystal doors to Elantya. But their excitement is short-lived when they and their friends are kidnapped by their underwater enemies and taken beneath the sea. Imprisoned there, forced to witness battles among sea monsters and face the dark sage Azric, they learn of a scheme that could bring Elantya to ruins. Can they escape in time to save the magical island from destruction?
247 pages, Kindle Edition
First published June 1, 2007
29 people are currently reading
241 people want to read
About the author
Rebecca Moesta
86 books81 followersRebecca Moesta is the author of several science fiction books. Although born in Germany, Rebecca was born to American parents and raised in Pasadena, California, where she lived until her early twenties. Rebecca graduated with a Bachelor of Liberal Arts from Cal State L.A.. and shortly after graduation married a former classmate from Caltech, becoming Rebecca Moesta Cowan.
In 1981, the couple moved to New Haven, Connecticut, where they lived for one year until they moved to Darmstadt, Germany, until 1987. In Germany Rebecca took graduate courses with Boston University and earned a Master of Science degree in Business Administration. During their stay in Germany she gave birth to her son, Jonathan, before moving back to the United States and settling in Livermore, California.
In 1989, Rebecca took a position at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory as a proof reader and copy editor. There she formed a science fiction club in which she met her future husband Kevin J. Anderson. She divorced her first husband in 1990 and married Anderson in 1991.
The couple started working together writing science fiction novels and to date has written two Titan A.E. young adult novels, two high-tech pop-up books and fourteen Star Wars novels, the Young Jedi Knights series. The couple owns and runs the company Wordfire, and Rebecca is currently working on several new projects, including copy editing her husband's works.
In 1981, the couple moved to New Haven, Connecticut, where they lived for one year until they moved to Darmstadt, Germany, until 1987. In Germany Rebecca took graduate courses with Boston University and earned a Master of Science degree in Business Administration. During their stay in Germany she gave birth to her son, Jonathan, before moving back to the United States and settling in Livermore, California.
In 1989, Rebecca took a position at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory as a proof reader and copy editor. There she formed a science fiction club in which she met her future husband Kevin J. Anderson. She divorced her first husband in 1990 and married Anderson in 1991.
The couple started working together writing science fiction novels and to date has written two Titan A.E. young adult novels, two high-tech pop-up books and fourteen Star Wars novels, the Young Jedi Knights series. The couple owns and runs the company Wordfire, and Rebecca is currently working on several new projects, including copy editing her husband's works.
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Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews
August 23, 2020
The story wasn't as engaging as the first and just suffered from middle book syndrome. Ocean Realm felt like a pit stop not a continuation of what was happening in the first book.
November 18, 2012
Reviewed by Me for TeensReadToo.com
Cousins Gwen and Vic Pierce, the protagonists from CRYSTAL DOORS, are back in this exciting follow-up, along with some of the other great characters we came to know and love in the first book: Uncle Cap, Ali el Sharif, Tiaret, Lyssandra, and even the wonderful djinni, Piri.
The magic of the world of Elantya is also back, along with the Citadel, Sharif's magic carpet, Tiaret's warrior skills, Lyssandra's telepathic and interpreting abilities, and the natural curiosity of Gwen and Vic. Unfortunately, that also means that the bad guys from the first book, most noticeably the merlons and their king, Barak, have also returned.
Uncle Cap (Gwen's uncle and Vic's father) has made it through the crystal doors and finally arrived on Elantya. But even before a happy reunion can happen, the merlons kidnap Gwen and Vic, none too happy about the last skirmish that took place. This time, their plans are even greater: they're hoping for total destruction of the Elantyan world and, quite possibly, the crystal doors themselves.
The twins will have to use all of their knowledge and wits to keep this from happening. Thankfully, they also have their close friends to rely on, as well as some new allies. It's not going to be an easy feat, but somehow they must defeat King Barak, Orpheon, and Azric's immortals.
The climax of OCEAN REALM is a fantasy-lover's dream, with action-packed scenes that will have you flipping pages as quickly as you can. Readers of the first two books in the series will be eagerly anticipating the third, SKY REALM, set to be released in June 2008.
Cousins Gwen and Vic Pierce, the protagonists from CRYSTAL DOORS, are back in this exciting follow-up, along with some of the other great characters we came to know and love in the first book: Uncle Cap, Ali el Sharif, Tiaret, Lyssandra, and even the wonderful djinni, Piri.
The magic of the world of Elantya is also back, along with the Citadel, Sharif's magic carpet, Tiaret's warrior skills, Lyssandra's telepathic and interpreting abilities, and the natural curiosity of Gwen and Vic. Unfortunately, that also means that the bad guys from the first book, most noticeably the merlons and their king, Barak, have also returned.
Uncle Cap (Gwen's uncle and Vic's father) has made it through the crystal doors and finally arrived on Elantya. But even before a happy reunion can happen, the merlons kidnap Gwen and Vic, none too happy about the last skirmish that took place. This time, their plans are even greater: they're hoping for total destruction of the Elantyan world and, quite possibly, the crystal doors themselves.
The twins will have to use all of their knowledge and wits to keep this from happening. Thankfully, they also have their close friends to rely on, as well as some new allies. It's not going to be an easy feat, but somehow they must defeat King Barak, Orpheon, and Azric's immortals.
The climax of OCEAN REALM is a fantasy-lover's dream, with action-packed scenes that will have you flipping pages as quickly as you can. Readers of the first two books in the series will be eagerly anticipating the third, SKY REALM, set to be released in June 2008.
November 29, 2012
Tant qu'à me faire venir le premier livre j'ai décider de commander toute la trilogy qui fut signé gracieusement par les deux auteur que je remercie grandement pour leur générosité. Je crois bien un jour lire ces livres à mes enfant et eux sauront l'apprécier à sa juste valeur.
Pour ma part, j'ai trouver ce deuxième opus un peu mieux que le premier, mais encore là j'ai eu un mal fou à embarquer dans l'histoire. Je n'arrivais pas à trouver les personnages crédibles et seul les moment de cruauté envers eux m'accrochaient vraiment et ce n'était pas, a mon avis, les moment fort du livre.
Typique livre où un groupe se fait capturé, doit survivre et s'échapper par la suite.
Encore une fois, déjà fait, déjà lu et existe sous forme de grand classique. Ce livre n'en fera malheureusement pas parti.
Certaines scènes ne sont pas recommandé pour les enfants, donc un peu de jugement s'applique si ce livre est lu à des enfants en bas âge.
Pour ma part, j'ai trouver ce deuxième opus un peu mieux que le premier, mais encore là j'ai eu un mal fou à embarquer dans l'histoire. Je n'arrivais pas à trouver les personnages crédibles et seul les moment de cruauté envers eux m'accrochaient vraiment et ce n'était pas, a mon avis, les moment fort du livre.
Typique livre où un groupe se fait capturé, doit survivre et s'échapper par la suite.
Encore une fois, déjà fait, déjà lu et existe sous forme de grand classique. Ce livre n'en fera malheureusement pas parti.
Certaines scènes ne sont pas recommandé pour les enfants, donc un peu de jugement s'applique si ce livre est lu à des enfants en bas âge.
July 6, 2013
Amazing! In this book the five apprentices are kidnapped by the Merlons and taken to their underwater city. There Gwen and Vic learn more about their mysterious mothers from non other than the evil sage Azric.
June 21, 2009
its a good book havent quite finished the 5 main characters have been kid-napped and are taked under water by the evil merlons("monster mermaids")
Currently reading
January 24, 2009Good
July 27, 2011
Terrible and very boring could not finish.
October 14, 2011
This was a good sequel to the first "Crystal Doors" book. My daughter and I liked this book also. I just got done reading it for the second time. I still like it.
Read
April 8, 2013cool
July 11, 2013
I thought it was a very wonderful book very detailed and descriptive.
September 5, 2019
Fun Read
Fun, fun, fun. If the pace was any faster, you couldn't keep up. Not a serious book for adults, but certainly fun for young teens angry well read pre-teens.
Fun, fun, fun. If the pace was any faster, you couldn't keep up. Not a serious book for adults, but certainly fun for young teens angry well read pre-teens.
August 17, 2011
im not going swimming in the ocean for a while after reading this.
Great book .
Great book .
March 27, 2017
I did not like the first book so I have no idea what compelled me to even give this one a chance.
May 3, 2017
Elantya is recovering from the merlon attack that nearly overpowered them. The threat isn't over, but now they have time to figure out how they can defend the island, and what they might do against the evil mages Azric and Orpheon. Gwen, Vic, and the others don't expect to have a large role---and then a kidnapping puts them in the heart of the ocean, under Azric's power. Can they free themselves and save Elantya once again?
This had an okay story marred by a few really annoying things that kept throwing me out of it. Basically, "like on land but underwater" kept being a dealbreaker for me. Take the behavior of light. Yes, light goes through water. Badly. And this gets worse the deeper you go. According to a quick search, to match the behavior of light in the book, most of this has to take place about 200 meters below the surface. That's a really shallow ocean. Or take how Vic's father treats diving with rapid descents and ascents. There is one nod on the last one that he got the bends, but overall I was either expecting magic to explain it away or him to do things properly. And so on.
I also wasn't that fond of the merlons. We finally get to see their society, so I was expecting a little more of the society and a little less of evil/stupid slave drivers with a king that behaves like a toddler either throwing a tantrum or distracted by a shiny toy. Vic feels sorry for killing one. That felt really forced to me, since their behavior barely puts them above dolphins on the intelligence scale. And none of them show any signs of not being evil, even if it's not quite at Azric's level. They're pretty much here to be cannon fodder.
That said, the plot took a while to get going, but once it did, managed to keep things moving. Most of the focus was on Sharif and his character journey. It's got a lot of message about slavery being bad and not looking down on people, though I did appreciate Sharif wasn't really obvious in his superiority and so didn't recognize it in himself. I also really liked one quote from late in the book.
Overall, I'm not all that interested to see where this is heading. It's obvious Orpheon still has a role to play, and that the prophecy will be fulfilled (though I would hope a few twists in its interpretation materialize). I'm still annoyed at how the worldbuilding and the science worked out, so I don't think it's worth trying to track down the final volume unless you liked it a lot better than I did. I rate this book Neutral.
See my reviews and more at https://offtheshelfreviews.wordpress....
This had an okay story marred by a few really annoying things that kept throwing me out of it. Basically, "like on land but underwater" kept being a dealbreaker for me. Take the behavior of light. Yes, light goes through water. Badly. And this gets worse the deeper you go. According to a quick search, to match the behavior of light in the book, most of this has to take place about 200 meters below the surface. That's a really shallow ocean. Or take how Vic's father treats diving with rapid descents and ascents. There is one nod on the last one that he got the bends, but overall I was either expecting magic to explain it away or him to do things properly. And so on.
I also wasn't that fond of the merlons. We finally get to see their society, so I was expecting a little more of the society and a little less of evil/stupid slave drivers with a king that behaves like a toddler either throwing a tantrum or distracted by a shiny toy. Vic feels sorry for killing one. That felt really forced to me, since their behavior barely puts them above dolphins on the intelligence scale. And none of them show any signs of not being evil, even if it's not quite at Azric's level. They're pretty much here to be cannon fodder.
That said, the plot took a while to get going, but once it did, managed to keep things moving. Most of the focus was on Sharif and his character journey. It's got a lot of message about slavery being bad and not looking down on people, though I did appreciate Sharif wasn't really obvious in his superiority and so didn't recognize it in himself. I also really liked one quote from late in the book.
"Mmm," the Ven Sage said. "A choice may be unfair, unbearable, unreasonable, dishonorable, painful, awkward, complex, unethical, or impractical. It may even seem impossible. But there is always a choice, even if it is a bad or painful one."
Overall, I'm not all that interested to see where this is heading. It's obvious Orpheon still has a role to play, and that the prophecy will be fulfilled (though I would hope a few twists in its interpretation materialize). I'm still annoyed at how the worldbuilding and the science worked out, so I don't think it's worth trying to track down the final volume unless you liked it a lot better than I did. I rate this book Neutral.
See my reviews and more at https://offtheshelfreviews.wordpress....
Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews