Grimoire Tracked By Terror [Hardcover]

Grimoire: Tracked by Terror is the second book in Brad Strickland's Grimoire series. I loved the first book; easily as much as this book, but I wanted to wait for the second in the series to write a review, just to see if the great momentum could be kept up. Well, I'm happy to report that we have ourselves a bona-fide fabulous young adult series!

The book(s) centers around Jarvey Midion: A young man of 12 on a vacation to England. In book one he learns that he's the latest in a long line of Midion sorcerers (with powers and abilities he never knew he had, and does not quite know how to use). His kindly parents are snatched away by an evil distant-relative Midion. They become imprisoned in one of the multitude worlds held within the Grimoire: A tome of different worlds/universes created by the various descendants of the Midion lineage for their own twisted purposes. The worlds are deliciously spooky and mysterious. You simply HAVE to find out what happens next. You can't help but want to explore.

After learning that his parents are somewhere inside the Grimoire, Jarvey embarks on a fantastic journey to find them. In book one he meets Betsy Dare, the fearless, clever and resourceful young heroine of the series who helps Jarvey along in his quest. But, Betsy too has a secret. In book one Jarvey and Betsy find themselves trying to escape, time and again, from the many cruel denizens and traps of the various worlds within the Grimoire. You see Jarvey did something no other Midion had ever done in the countless years the Grimoire has existed. He entered the worlds of the Grimoire WITH the Grimoire itself! This makes him extremely powerful, and extremely valuable.

In book two, Tracked by Terror, Jarvey and Betsy jump further into more lands within the volume of the Grimoire. They encounter zombie robots, evil spirits, pirates, enormous gorilla guards (which I thought was cool, because I love King Kong), hypnotizing cobras, wicked trees and a Midion patriarch that hunts humans for sport and another that writes really, really BAD theater, and makes his family act in it. Did I mention that this book is funny too?

Brad Strickland knows how to scare us, how to make us laugh and how to keep us turning pages. This book has everything a fan of the genre wants. It's well written and poses lots of delectable questions that reveal themselves in fun and entertaining ways. No pages are wasted, and we very quickly come to care for our heroes. Highly recommended!

One of the best books ever written on Army senior-level leadership.

Parts of it a somewhat dated after nearly thirty years, but if this had been required reading for the media prior to Gulf War II, they would have started the war much better prepared.

There are only a handful of writers (Atkinson, Ricks, Simons) who show that they really "get it", and Mylander (an Army brat, I believe) is another.

› Go to Amazon U.S. to see both reviews  5.0 out of 5 stars