Review: Beyonders - A World Without Heroes

Title: Beyonders - A World Without Heroes
Author: Brandon Mull
Genre: Fantasy
Publication: 2011

Summary: Jason Walker has often wished his life could be a bit less predictable--until a routine day at the zoo ends with Jason suddenly transporting from the hippo tank to a place unlike anything he's ever seen. In the past, the people of Lyrian welcomed visitors from the Beyond, but attitudes have changed since the wizard emperor Maldor rose to power. The brave resistors who opposed the emperor have been bought off or broken, leaving a realm where fear and suspicion prevail.

In his search for a way home, Jason meets Rachel, who was also mysteriously drawn to Lyrian from our world. With the help of a few scattered rebels, Jason and Rachel become entangled in a quest to piece together the word of power that can destroy the emperor, and learn that their best hope to find a way home will be to save this world without heroes. (Summary taken from Barnes and nobles.com)

My Thoughts: I believe Brandon Mull could not write a bad story even if he tried. Being a tremendous fan of the Fablehaven series, I went into this book with very high expectations and I wasn't left disappointed. Mull has a way of bringing life to his stories and characters that I have come to enjoy greatly as I love his style of writing and his storytelling. With all of his books, and especially Beyonders, I did not want to put it down for even a moment. If I had the time I would have read it all in one sitting because I just needed to know what happened next.

I got to hand it to Mull, he definitely knows how to write a compelling story. During the story there was a certain thing tugging at my mind about a major plot point which I couldn't really make sense of because it seemed silly to me, then I was pleased to realize it was all part of his master plan to create the story that way because in the end it blew my mind. It introduces a lot of great characters who I came to care about and I experienced joy and sorrow for them. All of the characters are believable and handle themselves perfectly to really make the book shine.

Beyonders - A World Without Heroes is definitely now one of my favorite books. It's exciting, engaging, perilous, funny, sad and overall spectacular. I may just be showering praise onto this book but honestly it's all I can do. I liked it that much. I wish I were a time traveler so I could read the next one immediately.

My Rating: 5/5