The Book Stacks

Reeling from the mysterious and sudden deaths of her parents, Samantha Mae Costas is trying to keep it all together. Between moving all of her things from New York to Mile High Mountain with Grandpa and not being able to tell her friends about the amazing adventure she had with Prince Buznor and her other friends, life is just plain hard.

But when the Crimson Crystal glows a call for help, Sam doesn’t hesitate for a moment with the decision to go help her friends… and possible meet her ancestors who started it all…

Once again, Ben Furman has woven a story that I enjoy even as a twenty-something.

The wonderful Samantha and her friends return once more to travel to new worlds and meet a whole assortment of new friends – and enemies. If you thought the landscapes and creatures from The Crimson Crystal were impressive, you are going to love this book.

That’s not to say you need to read the first book to enjoy this one. One of the things I love about this book is that it can stand on its own. The references to the first book are few and far between, and you don’t need to know what happened to understand what’s going on.

I especially loved how Furman developed Sam and Buzz’s relationship in this book. He gave them time to grow their friendship while keeping the plot moving. I quite enjoyed their little exchanges.

I have a few small nitpicks for this one, though.

Things seemed to happen just a little too easily. For example, right after Grandpa and Sam talk about his feeling she should stay with him where it’s safe and her disagreeing, she says something along the lines of, “Okay, I’m going for a walk.” And Grandpa just lets her go. I’m not a parent yet, but no parent would be quite that oblivious. At least, I’d like to think so. That and other ‘easy’ things made me pause and wonder for a bit.

The next thing I noticed was the tendency for repeating things. Sam having an itchy chest, Sam using her inhaler, and Sam grabbing Buzz’s hand all became quite noticeable to me after the first few times. There are also small typos I found in the book, but they weren’t more than momentary distractions.

Overall, I highly recommend this book. They’re full of adventure, a lot of fun and written for young adults yet deal with serious issues like identity that even adults struggle with.

Read my review of Sam’s Quest Book 1: Quest for the Crimson Crystal

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This is part of the “From the Stacks Challenge”.

1. Sam’s Quest Book 2: The Royal Trident
2. …