The Lost Art

November 1, 2008
Gr 6-9-On a future Earth, the people's way of life and technology have been turned back in a Reversal, and the very geography of the planet has been rearranged. The Users, who one might assume are today's superpowers, caused much destruction and the Reversal centuries before, and their books hold all of their dangerous knowledge, the Lost Art. In order to prevent such a tragedy from recurring, the books have been hidden away in a remote Russian monastery. Now, they have been stolen. The monastery is destroyed, the monks slaughtered. Only Va, a former soldier and assassin and now-repentant monk, survives. He sets off on a mission to recover the volumes. Meanwhile, Benzamir Mahmood and his enemies, traitorous former friends whose ancestors had escaped the User's destruction centuries earlier, have returned to Earth. Benzamir is seeking the books and his enemies in order to prevent them from interfering with life on Earth. Ultimately, Va and Benzamir join forces. Along with their various traveling companions, they go to the African desert where a final confrontation between Benzamir and his enemies occurs. What starts off as a promising novel is, in the end, disappointing. The idea of the Reversal, the Users, and the changes to society where there are pale Ewer slaves and Middle Eastern and African countries appear to be dominant is interesting and another way to convey the dangers of modern technology and our world. Yet the overly long story tends to drag in places, and there are too many competing story lines and characters, making it difficult to connect or empathize with any of them."Jennifer D. Montgomery, Western Kentucky University, Bowling Green"

Copyright 2008 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

July 1, 2008
Nearly a thousand years from now, long after civilization's collapse, most of humanity rests in an anti-technology dark age. Space traveler Benzamir returns to Earth to protect it from the exploitive forces in his own society. This original and engaging science fiction adventure features adult protagonists, though they deal with classic coming-of-age questions about their place in the world.

(Copyright 2008 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)