Book of Earth

Diadem Worlds of Magic #5

by John Peel

Score falls victim to a deadly illness with only one stopping the mysterious person behind this magical attack. Determined to save their friend, Helaine and Pixel go to Score's hometown, the Earth city of New York, to seek out his attacker, who is using Score's most precious item to hurt his mother's amulet.

Finding the amulet proves to be difficult on Earth-an unfamiliar world of cars, skyscrapers, and guns for Helaine and Pixel-where their magical powers are severely weakened. Luckily, the trio stumbles upon a wealthy businessman who promises to help them in return for curing his disabled daughter-but is he really on their side? And then there's Bad Tony, Score's abusive father, fresh from jail, who shows up with gun-toting thugs to kidnap his critically-ill son. Will Helaine and Pixel find the amulet in time to save their dying friend?

Genres: Fantasy, Young Adult, Middle Grade, Magic, Fiction, Childrens, Science Fiction

208 pages, Paperback

First published February 1, 1998

About the author

John Peel is the author of Doctor Who books and comic strips. Notably, he wrote the first original Doctor Who novel, Timewyrm: Genesys, to launch the Virgin New Adventures line. In the early 1990s he was commissioned by Target Books to write novelisations of several key Terry Nation Dalek stories of the 1960s after the rights were finally worked out. He later wrote several more original Daleks novels.

He has the distinction of being one of only three authors credited on a Target novelisation who had not either written a story for the TV series or been a part of the production team (the others were Nigel Robinson and Alison Bingeman).

Outside of Doctor Who, Peel has also written novels for the Star Trek franchise. Under the pseudonym "John Vincent", he wrote novelisations based upon episodes of the 1990s TV series James Bond Jr..

Reviews

[Joe Kessler · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is by far the best of the original six Diadem novels published by Scholastic from 1997 to 1998 (and perhaps of the entire series, which resumed many years later under Llewellyn). It picks up on the cliffhanger ending of the volume before, with Score falling prey to a magical attack via an amulet that he left back on Earth, injecting real stakes and a ticking-clock element into the narrative. Our three teen heroes now have to visit his homeland of New York City to find the item and cure him, and that's a development that pays off in several key ways.

First: although each protagonist received a certain degree of backstory in book one, their fantastical adventures across the Diadem have generally been too propulsive to allow for much retrospection. But Score's history with his abusive father and his hometown at large inherently generates a more nuanced and interesting plot for him than some generic episodic threat, in addition to showcasing how much he's grown in his time away -- a lesson that author John Peel would return to with subsequent homecomings for the other kids in books seven and nine. The setting also provides some nice culture-clash / fish-out-of-water antics for Pixel and particularly Helaine, whose medieval-like planet of course couldn't prepare her for technologies like cell phones, helicopters, and guns. Her comedic distrust of such things feels straight out of a Doctor Who serial with the companion Leela, while Pixel's more muted reaction to how basic everything seems from his advanced perspective renders him rather like the Star Trek crew in the movie with the whales.

The city is also a familiar environment for readers, which means Peel isn't tasked with as much worldbuilding or descriptive exposition, and Earth's status as a rim world entails that no one can manifest much magic for good or for ill. Suddenly our child sorcerers are cut off from the bulk of their powers, forcing them to rely more on their wits to defeat their latest enemies.

All of those strengths are more or less baked into the premise of this tale, but the execution is great, too. There are betrayals and other twists, including a redemption arc for Score's dad that doesn't ignore or forgive his earlier actions, and the hokey puzzles are thankfully at a minimum. The characters are continuing to develop nicely, and while the romantic attraction between Score and Helaine is still unacknowledged by either, their relationship grows a lot closer through their ordeal here, which includes a moment when they have to pretend to kiss in order to evade capture. What a gift for the shippers out there! And although the story closes on yet another cliffhanger, at least this time it's a climactic result that has built up over the course of the preceding events, rather than coming out of nowhere at the last minute.

My biggest critique is how this novel handles a new character in a wheelchair, whose lifelong disability is framed as a punishment and a trap and is ultimately healed with magic, which didn't bother me as a kid but in hindsight I would call more than a tad problematic. Nevertheless, for a middle-grade title from a quarter-century ago, it holds up pretty well overall. I think this volume is the main reason I look back on the whole series so fondly, and I only wish the rest of them could have matched it in quality.

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[Leeanna · Rating 4 out of 5]

Diadem #5: Book of Earth, by John Peel

Back on Earth for the first time since escaping in the first Diadem novel, Score's not really able to enjoy his home planet - he and his friends are on a desperate mission to save his life. Someone on Earth has a necklace that belonged to Score's mother and is using it to drain away his life.

Helaine and Pixel are out of their element on Earth, but they don't let that stop them from doing everything they can to help Score. They met Destiny, a girl with magic powers of her own, and a secret past connected to the Three Who Ruled. Peel starts a new story line with Destiny, and a new idea that evil doesn't always look evil.

As usual, Peel ends on a cliffhanger, leaving you rushing to read the next Diadem book. My chief complaint is that action happens super fast, and in this book you realize the events of the previous four books have taken less than a week, which is just a little too rushed for me. But otherwise, a fun story.

4/5.

[lulzcannon · Rating 5 out of 5]

Because Score is my favorite character, and I always love seeing my favorite character get into messed up situations, this was a great read for me.

The cover of the first edition always makes me laugh though...it looks like he's chasing the amulet as it floats down the street.

[Andrew Cornelius · Rating 5 out of 5]

really good