Mobs Rule!

Minecraft Stonesword Saga #2

by Nick Eliopulos

Get ready to find danger, adventure--and maybe even a few laughs--in this deluxe illustrated hardcover chapter book, the only official Minecraft chapter book series!

Based on the most popular video game of all time, this all-new chapter book series takes a group of intrepid Minecraft players deeper into the game than ever before. Something has turned the Evoker King to stone, and elements of his code have turned into new and terrible bosses that threaten the digital world of Minecraft. Now Po, Harper, and their friends must travel deep into underground and into a web of danger to face the one of them. But that's the easy part, because in the real world, Po decides to run for class president and before he knows it, the ground feels like it is opening under his feet and his popularity is about to plummet!

Look for these other great Minecraft(R) books:
- Into the Game! (Minecraft Woodsword Chronicles #1) 9781984850454
- Last Block Standing! (Minecraft Woodsword Chronicles #6) 9781984850690
- Crack in the Code! (Minecraft Stonesword Saga #1) 9780593372982

(c) 2022 Mojang AB. Minecraft, the MINECRAFT logo and the MOJANG STUDIOS logo are trademarks of Microsoft Corporation

Genres: Science Fiction, Audiobook, Juvenile, Childrens

144 pages, Hardcover

Published January 4, 2022

About the author

Nick Eliopulos was born and raised in Jacksonville, Florida, where he grew up on a steady diet of super-hero comics and “non-fiction” books about alien abductions, psychic phenomena, and Sasquatch. He was fortunate to have parents and teachers who encouraged his off-beat reading habits, which ultimately led him to pursue a degree in cultural studies at the University of Florida.

Shortly after graduating, Nick moved to New York to work in publishing. In the course of his thirteen-year career as a children’s book editor, he had the opportunity to write for a number of licensed properties, from Thomas the Tank Engine to DC Super Friends and Scholastic’s New York Times bestselling multiplatform series Spirit Animals. His original comics work has appeared in anthologies Stuck in the Middle and First Kiss (Then Tell).

Nick’s debut novel, The Adventurers Guild, will be published by Hyperion in October 2017. Co-authored with his best friend Zack Loran Clark, the book is heavily inspired by the duo’s collaborative storytelling experiences with tabletop role-playing games; they’ve been in the same weekly gaming group for nearly a decade.

Nick lives in Brooklyn with his husband, a fellow editor, author, and Southern transplant. He’s currently employed as a narrative designer for an indie video game studio. He still reads super-hero comics and harbors an ever-dwindling hope that Sasquatch might be out there.

Reviews

[Deke Moulton · Rating 5 out of 5]

Not bad for a IP chapter book. The characters actually develop over the course of the story and it ties into Minecraft lore in a really interesting way.

[Nick Armstrong · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Woodsword and Stonesword books are awesome Minecraft early chapter books. My son is hooked, for sure, and each time a new one comes out we have to rush to Old Firehouse Books to snag it. The characters are fun and engaging and they have a lot rich experiences outside of the game, each book has a little morality play that goes along with it - usually having to do with inclusion or patience or mindfulness or setting the right goals. Like most things in Minecraft, it is what you make of it, but the fiction books they come out with are really hopeful and helpful in ways that young readers pick up on without it being heavy-handed.

Mobs Rule! is good, but not as good as the first book in the series (as is typical with a longer arc). The story (both in-game and out) was short and didn't have as much to it as some of the other books do... and there wasn't really an A/B narrative that followed more characters. They are all pretty much grouped together into in game/out of game on this one. There's absolutely room to expand on the teachers and that should have been done here, but maybe there's more to the arc coming up that I don't know about.

There was sort of a retcon reset of what the teachers knew in the transition from Woodsword to Stonesword, and I was always hoping that the backstory would hash itself out a bit as we went along. In any case, these are well worth your time and your kiddos' time to investigate and explore and might even inspire them to craft their own stuff based on what they're reading.

[Mandy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Children's fiction, part of a series. This book did continue the Minecraft saga but also had a plotline of student elections. It was a bit jarring reading about candidates and debates and issues in a kids book, but I suppose it also helps bring some of the news topics to a level they can understand a bit better. Not my favorite of the series.

[Lozza · Rating 2 out of 5]

Read this to my children at bedtime. None of us enjoyed it, it was too busy, too much happening and none of us could understand why a minecraft story was put into another storyline. It could of been 2 different and better books.

[Alyce Caswell · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another riveting instalment in the series. Kiddo is more interested in the Minecraft scenes, as he's a burgeoning gamer, but he kept asking for "one more chapter" the whole way through. The lesson in this book was also a really good one, too.

[Amanda · Rating 5 out of 5]

My son loves this series.

[Susan Whitney · Rating 5 out of 5]

Review from 6.5 year old: I liked the end because it was surprising. I like all the characters.

[Patrice · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's pretty straightforward for the age level.

[Kimberly]

The things you read with your kids...

[Tiffany C · Rating 5 out of 5]

A 5 year old's review: I'm serious- the best of all of them. (He says this every time). 👍 It was just so good. The spider with the skull and green mist was a favorite character.

[Amanda · Rating 4 out of 5]

Still a good continuation of the story but a little slower. Another one with my kiddo.

[Coca Cola Fan · Rating 5 out of 5]

It was so good and a good message, this series is really good so far