Bloomsbury
Out Now
More information on the Bloomsbury website
I feel obliged to point out that the title of the book is very misleading; even though there is a curse (of sorts), and there is an ice serpent, there is no ‘curse of the ice serpent’ as you would think. Not to mention that the real danger in the story is in fact a man (Tomasz Oginski), who simply manipulates a giant serpent along with a race of Qalupalik (sea men), to his advantage when trying to reach ‘The Heart of Vulcan’/’The Thermolith.’
Now, I can’t say that the story was bad, or even unpleasant to read; in fact it was quite engaging and interesting. However, I did find it to be somewhat underdeveloped, especially when it comes to the narrative itself. The book is short but packed with action and to an extent I’d say that this is a good thing, although it does also spoil a novel as a whole, mostly due to having really focus on what you’re reading; missing even a sentence could get confusing.
In this case I found that, particularly by the time I had finished reading, I didn’t know very much about he places in which the action took place or the characters that took part in it (there are many names to remember). Although some things can be inferred from the context of the events going on at the time, personally I think a text should have at least a little more description on the setting and the characters within the plot.
As for the plot itself, I wasn’t particularly impressed but there was no real disappointment either. The only aspect that particularly interested me was ‘Nautilus’ but in order to find out more about how it was built etc. would require the reading of the previous two books in the Monster Odyssey series.
Overall, I definitely think that the book is written for a target audience of young teenage boys interested in stories such as Percy Jackson or Secret Breakers, for it is fast paced and packed with action, which grips the often wondering mind.
