I’ve just finished reading Stone Junction, the first of the books on our reading list, and I loved it.
It’s about a boy named Daniel Pearse who is raised as a member of the AMO, the Alliance of Magicians and Outlaws after his mother is killed in a bomb blast. The first part of the book is all about the characters he meets and the training he receives by the various members of the AMO. The second part of the book he is taken under the wing of Volta, the leader of the AMO, who trains him for the theft of a diamond, all the while searching for the truth behind his mother’s death.
The story is engaging and easy to follow, even though I did have to look up a word in the dictionary every so often. I loved that it is set in the real world where you can believe the characters are real and you really want to believe an organisation like the AMO actually exists. The author certainly knows how to tell a good story and I have to keep reminding myself, as I do with all good stories, that such an interesting plot and array of characters is from the imagination of one person. He manages to create what I believe every good work of fiction should have; that ability to remove you from the real world and transport you into the story right alongside the characters so you feel like you are part of the adventure. This book reminded me of that feeling of wonder I would have as a kid when I would dream about packing my bags and take off travelling, looking forward to exploring what the world had to offer and who I would meet along the way.
I usually find stories with lots of characters quite difficult to follow but with Stone Junction Jim Dodge did an excellent job of creating so many different interesting characters with memorable names such as Smiling Jack, Mott, Wild Bill, Volta and Bad Bobby each with their own persona, so I didn’t have to keep flicking back through the pages to find out who they are like I usually have to in books with more than about four characters.
I quite like the quirkiness of things such as the chapter names in this book, I found out early on when I was trying to reach the end of the first chapter, there are only four in the whole book – Air, Earth, Water and Fire. I also love it when the author manages to impart pearls of wisdom within the flow of the story, even better when they include quotes I can take from it.
Favourite quotes from the book:
Outlaws only do wrong when they feel it’s right; criminals only feel right when they’re doing wrong.
Just because everything’s different doesn’t mean anything has changed
Why sweat the little shit when deaths got your address
I can’t really think of anything I didn’t like about this book. A couple of times I expected the plot to have a twist when it didn’t but there’s nothing wrong with that. If I absolutely had to pick a criticism of the book I would be scraping the bottom of the barrel but I would have to say I wasn’t blown away by the ending. It’s not that there’s anything wrong with the ending but I always find when I read a really good book, I almost don’t want it to end and when it does it’s never quite the ending that I had in mind. Or maybe it’s just me wanting to find out more about the people left behind. But I guess that’s what sequels are for. Now I can’t wait to start reading next months book.
A great adventure I would recommend reading. Had the ending been different it would have been well in the 80’s
Overall: 79%