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Thunderbirds: Peril in Peru
An early warning of disaster brings International Rescue to Peru to assist in relief efforts following a series of earth tremors – and sends the Thunderbirds in search of an ancient Inca treasure trove hidden beneath a long-lost temple deep in the South American jungle! When Lady Penelope is kidnapped by sinister treasure hunters, Scott Tracy and Parker are soon hot on their trail. Along the way they' ll have to solve a centuries-old mystery, brave the inhospitable wilderness of the jungle and even tangle with a lost tribe – with the evil Hood close behind them all the way...
166 pages, Paperback
Published November 19, 2024
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October 6, 2025
This was better than the first outing, but with this being book 2 of 3 of the Thunderbirds novels I own, I'm beginning to understand why the author used a pseudonym for these.
I found myself enjoying the first half of the novel (despite the short explanatory lines of text here and there to explain the characters and organisation which anyone reading this should already know) as it fleshed out some of the theories on Tracey Island as to who the Hood is and had the family making some assumptions about what keeps happening to Kyrano. This leads Brains to making some suggestions about telekinesis and who their villain might be.
Brains was given another chance to show off his (nick)namesake as Scott walks in on him testing his latest gadget, an earthquake detection system. His distracted nature while deep in work (causing him to unconsciously snap at Scott) gives us some humour, before this new device becomes the instigator of our adventure. Scott is off to Peru incase support is needed post earthquake.
Thankfully, due to giving them enough notice, any major disasters are averted (and herein lies the problem) there are no large scale disasters in this entire novel. We get a short rescue with the Mole - for which I appreciated some extra technical details about how it works... I never knew it concretes the tunnel as it goes along - but apart from this, there is hardly anything that feels very... Thunderbirds are Go! There are no dramatic rescues, Thunderbird 1 becomes just a fast mode of transport. (There is a bit of excitement when it gets shot down). Thunderbird only turns up at the end, and is a glorified taxi.
I did thoroughly enjoy the unusual pairing of Scott and Parker as they go on their quest to find the kidnapped Penelope. The contrast between Scott's bravery in situations... apart form Parkers fast driving! And Parkers unique set of skills come into play, unless there are dead bodies around and Parker gets scared.
Sure, some of the chases and driving in FAB1 were fun, but as the plot developed into tracking down the green emeralds, finding about the civilisation of Peru pre-Incas and then trying to beat the criminals who had kidnapped Penny's cousin / penny herself / artefacts leading them to the treasure before International Rescue could left me feeling like I was reading a simple good guys vs bad guys treasure hunt through crypts. This was closer to an Indiana Jones story or perhaps a Tomb Raider / Uncharted video game plot. There are crooks in Thunderbirds, but there's normally a rescue involved at some point, a conventional B-Plot running simultaneously or a James Bond-esque story with spies that Parker and Penny are tracking down. If I was going to try and find a closer match for another GA entity, it could maybe be closer to a Joe 90 plot. What a shame - perhaps the next will be on theme.
One minor gripe is the formatting of the text throughout. Excessive and incorrect paragraph breaks with large line spacing after each. Perhaps an artefact of being written for children and trying to make it easier to read?
I found myself enjoying the first half of the novel (despite the short explanatory lines of text here and there to explain the characters and organisation which anyone reading this should already know) as it fleshed out some of the theories on Tracey Island as to who the Hood is and had the family making some assumptions about what keeps happening to Kyrano. This leads Brains to making some suggestions about telekinesis and who their villain might be.
Brains was given another chance to show off his (nick)namesake as Scott walks in on him testing his latest gadget, an earthquake detection system. His distracted nature while deep in work (causing him to unconsciously snap at Scott) gives us some humour, before this new device becomes the instigator of our adventure. Scott is off to Peru incase support is needed post earthquake.
Thankfully, due to giving them enough notice, any major disasters are averted (and herein lies the problem) there are no large scale disasters in this entire novel. We get a short rescue with the Mole - for which I appreciated some extra technical details about how it works... I never knew it concretes the tunnel as it goes along - but apart from this, there is hardly anything that feels very... Thunderbirds are Go! There are no dramatic rescues, Thunderbird 1 becomes just a fast mode of transport. (There is a bit of excitement when it gets shot down). Thunderbird only turns up at the end, and is a glorified taxi.
I did thoroughly enjoy the unusual pairing of Scott and Parker as they go on their quest to find the kidnapped Penelope. The contrast between Scott's bravery in situations... apart form Parkers fast driving! And Parkers unique set of skills come into play, unless there are dead bodies around and Parker gets scared.
Sure, some of the chases and driving in FAB1 were fun, but as the plot developed into tracking down the green emeralds, finding about the civilisation of Peru pre-Incas and then trying to beat the criminals who had kidnapped Penny's cousin / penny herself / artefacts leading them to the treasure before International Rescue could left me feeling like I was reading a simple good guys vs bad guys treasure hunt through crypts. This was closer to an Indiana Jones story or perhaps a Tomb Raider / Uncharted video game plot. There are crooks in Thunderbirds, but there's normally a rescue involved at some point, a conventional B-Plot running simultaneously or a James Bond-esque story with spies that Parker and Penny are tracking down. If I was going to try and find a closer match for another GA entity, it could maybe be closer to a Joe 90 plot. What a shame - perhaps the next will be on theme.
One minor gripe is the formatting of the text throughout. Excessive and incorrect paragraph breaks with large line spacing after each. Perhaps an artefact of being written for children and trying to make it easier to read?
Displaying 1 of 1 review