Pawn's Play

The Blackgaard Chronicles #2

by Phil Lollar

Petty thief and con artist Richard Maxwell joins forces with the diabolical Dr. Regis Blackgaard to rain down more trouble on the town of Odyssey. While Connie deals with complications of her own at Camp What-A-Nut, Eugene starts working at Campbell College in the computer department. Hes quickly entangled in a grade-changing scheme and must step up to rescue an 11-year-old kid genius. Behind the scenes, Blackgaard makes moves to force our Odyssey friends into corners with no escape route. Will the power of good defeat Blackgaards evil scheme? The Blackgaard ChroniclesTM introduces stories based on classic episodes of the Adventures in Odyssey audio program.

Genres: Chapter Books, Childrens, Middle Grade, Fiction

160 pages, Hardcover

Published June 1, 2018

About the author

Phil Lollar has created, written, produced, and performed in dozens of audio and video series, including Adventures in Odyssey, The Little Angels, Jungle Jam and Friends, Iliad House, Little Dogs on the Prairie, 3,2,1 Penguins, The Wubbulous World of Dr Seuss, The Hi Hi Puffy Ami Yumi Show, The Mr. Men Show, Olivia!, Tom & Jerry, and Space Racers, to name just a few. Two of those series have been credited with re-inventing the art of audio drama: Jungle Jam and Friends, and Adventures in Odyssey. A three-time Seneca Award winner for Excellence in Audio Drama, Phil has also written 20 books. He took a double BA in Radio/TV/Film and Philosophy from California State University Fullerton, and an MFA in Dramatic Writing and Video Production from California State University Los Angeles.

Reviews

[(Katie) Paperbacks · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5⭐

[Collin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Better - I didn’t want to stab my leg with a handy fork to stay awake through a whole kids’ novel’s worth of novelized episode scripts, at least - but, really, there is nothing to commend these books to anyone but a lifelong fan(?) of the show who doesn’t really love Eugene or Richard. I mean, really, really love.

Connie’s awful letters are only in there to make it understandable in later books when Lucy gets rebellious and joins the Blackgaard’s Castle crew.

I have to Laff at Lollar’s thinking, this time because, out of all the background information he could have given us during these mysterious episodes, what he thinks we REALLY WANT is more of Eugene’s gumshoeing to find out about the grade-changing operation. Like... yeah, that was always MY most burning question about that episode. We never even saw Richard and Nicholas alone! Never got to see the conversations that led to Nicholas doing the grade-changing! It would be horrifying, sure, but that’s what we DESERVED. It made sense in the radio show, since we only had Eugene’s perspective. With Richard as a POV character, it doesn’t make sense that Richard’s toxic terrible “relationship” with Nicholas wouldn’t merit at least a single scene.

[Rachel · Rating 5 out of 5]

As much as I loved the first book, I loved this one even more, simply because "Pawn's Play" gives you even more behind-the-scenes action! There is a distinct lack of Whit and "Connie Goes to Camp" isn't as fun in letter form, but "Pawn's Play" is still an excellent story that makes you wait impatiently for the unnamed 3rd book to just be released already!!

[Daniel Roth · Rating 5 out of 5]

What I especially love about reading thru this series is you can read a book in a few hours, nice short reads.
This one includes the episodes from the show, "Connie goes to camp" and "Eugene's Dilemma"

[Cora Rattle · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very quick and easy read. Many of the characters lack development, but that can be expected in a short story like this. The audio drama series is incredibly similar to the book, with a few (small) deviations.

[Molly · Rating 3 out of 5]

Again, mostly content from radio drama episodes. There’s a bit more background of how Richard Maxwell got started with Blackgaard and with Nicholas Adamsworth, and that was nice.

Good story-blending. I’d recommend for kids.

[Djuana · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved the mystery

[Kaelyn · Rating 4 out of 5]

It really gives a lot more details and information behind the audio drama!! I really like being able to see more behind the Blackgard Chronicles. I recommend this series to all AIO fans!! :)

[GheenGirls · Rating 5 out of 5]

Turtle: great! Return to library.

[Hannah · Rating 5 out of 5]

As a huge adventures in Odyssey fan I loved the extra insight into the characters this book gave on familiars stories.

[Branson Bowler · Rating 5 out of 5]

Book two is leagues upon leagues better than the first one; my guess is the author just needed to get his bearings around writing this particular series. If (like me) you barely slogged your way through the first book, stick it out please. I got the first two volumes for Christmas so I prayed the second one would be better, and it very much is! It took me several weeks to finish the first one, but I sped through this book in just a couple days, despite them being approximately the same length (this one is actually a few pages longer). Now excitedly and nervously anticipating volume 3. Hoping the quality remains for the rest of the series!