Customer Reviews

Century #1: Ring of Fire

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(24)
3 star:		(18)
2 star:		(10)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

Rating System:
1 star = abysmal; some books deserve to be forgotten
2 star = poor; a total waste of time
3 star = good; worth the effort
4 star = very good; what writing should be
5 star = fantastic; must own it and share it with others

Blurb from back cover: "Every Hundred Years, humankind is put to the test. Every hundred years, four young people must take on an enormous challenge. Another century has passed, and the children have been chosen. The challenge begins in Rome, the city of fire."

1) I like the concept of a four part challenge covering four books with four kids who each plays a key role in completing the challenge

2) Right at page 8 my fears were realized when the writing of the character's actions, dialog and emotions was just HORRENDOUS. I don't know if this was due to the translation and/or the author is just a novice writer. Either way, it doesn't get much better throughout and only the cleverness of parts of the story keep the reader half-interested.

3) I like the cover and inserts. Eye-catching!

4) Did I mention the author seems to play the hand of God card too often?! There never is really any threat as things always miraculously work out perfect for our four protagonists...then again why wouldn't it? I mean after all they need to survive three more books. But still the suspension of belief was pushed passed reasonable limits in some cases.

5) If you don't want to care about the characters or appreciate the writing, then hold on to the mystery of the story. That has some meat to it, which is the main reason I didn't give this a one star.

I know. I know. I hate rating a book so low, but I read a LOT of YA books (just finished bk 2 of the Hunger games. Very good read!) But let's face it, there are more and more authors trying to break into this booming market of YA. That is especially good and bad for the audience as more good books and more poor books will be available and until you read it (or read the reviews) you won't know which is which.

Personal recommendation is move on unless the story concept and pretty inserts intrigues you.

I am chagrined to say that I didn't really enjoy the first half of this book, yet I will give it 4 stars anyway. Read on to see why.

For those of you who would appreciate an executive summary, here it is. Ring of Fire is a classic "clue hunt" book in the style of the Dan Brown's "da Vinci code". If you are a fan of great storytelling and seeing clues masterfully woven together into a surprising and compelling resolution... you won't find it here. That criticism being levelled, the book is "amusing" and "fun to read". There are much worse books out there. If you are on the fence about gifting this book to a teen, go ahead and do it. Its good enough.

Now the long version...

This story is juvenile fiction, and I am an adult. So reading it and writing the review require some care, because its easy to hold the author accountable to higher standards than necessary. Juvenile fiction can be great, but, by definition this sort of "clue hunt juvenile fiction" is part of a training ground for young adults who are still building their skills at story inference and deduction, with the story and its subplots geared on that level.

As a father of 4, I read a fair amount of juvenile fiction and enjoy watching the storyteller spin their tale, much as I might enjoy watching someone else artfully wrap a thoughtful gift for their child, and thinking to myself "oh, they're going to love that part". Unfortunately, Ring of Fire didn't quite deliver that feeling to me.

Overall, I found this book to be amusing. The basic theme of the book is that the kids have to unearth an ancient secret and "do some good". The story is constructed as four teenagers, each with their own "gift". The first book is mostly about Elettra, and she has some "power" gift. I suppose that the other books may focus more on the other characters. The gifts of the other characters are hinted at, but too vaguely for my liking. There is some mild drama but more suspense, which is good because it is juvenile fiction and so it should be lighter reading. I appreciated the overarching ideas that "history matters" and "we all are a part of some greater good".

Pros:
1) the author does a fair job of plot development. I feel that a lot of work went into researching the locale and the locale was then presented in a compelling and interesting way.
2) the clue hunt is well done in my opinion, although it does sometimes require a bit of faith on the part of the reader. I don't like it when books require you to make excuses for why things happen the way they do. And I sometimes found myself making excuses for the book. While other readers may feel that these are huge flaws, I do not. Its Juvenile Fiction.
3) i found the full color insert pages to be "neat" and a real plus for juveniles, who might enjoy having something more tangible to view. I think this is particularly true since many juveniles may have a difficult time picturing exactly what Rome looks like.
4) the overarching values were excellent. Importance of friends, doing what you need to do, the importance of history and learning and its effect on the future, accepting those who are different ... these are all present and well crafted.

These pros were enough to get it to 4 stars.

Cons:
1) The first half of the book was a bit lopsided to read, sometimes requiring conscious effort to continue. (The second half of the book held my interest very easily.)
2) Character development seemed poor. The other three characters seemed to get in Elettra's way often and to be very shallow. There was the angry/cynical one, the go getter, and the placid one. Some subplots seemed unnecessary and forced, to provide some characters with more "face time". In addition, I feel that the author should work harder on differentiating characters by HOW THEY SPEAK. Most dialogue could have been interchangable between characters.
3) There are some things that weren't tied together by the end of the book. I'll only give you one example. In the beginning, Elettra is patiently trying to catch a mouse. the author suggests that she enjoys the delayed gratification and the patience required. But I never saw where this was leveraged later in the book. Certainly, i could make the inference that the entire plotline supported this, because she didn't give up. But this is a bit tenuous and forced, and i would never expect my 13yo to "get it". This delayed gratification preference was presented as a part of her character, but in the rest of the book she comes across as being impulsive. If the author was trying to save this tie in for another book, then I feel she made a mistake. its a particularly grevious mistake considering that this book should be teaching juveniles how to make connections in stories, instead it would seem to encourage them to ignore details. I could comment more on this, but this con is getting a bit long.

I will give the book to my 13 yo, who I think will enjoy it. And I will probably read the second book, when it comes out. its good enough. But its my sincere hope that the author puts a bit more effort into "characters" and "weaving together details". Its critical in this "clue hunt" genre.

Elettra of Italy, Harvey of New York, Mistral of France, and Sheng of China all end up in Elettra's room by sheer coincidence. If coincidence is what you call it when 2 extra families are mysteriously booked in the only open room in the small hotel Elettra's family operates. The bunch of 12-year-olds, who seem to get on pretty well, and can speak the same language, find out they all have birthdays on Feb. 29th. It only gets weirder when they seem to cause a district-wide blackout then are given a briefcase by a man who later turns up dead. Urged by an unknown force, mostly emanating from Elettra, they work to solve the clues in the briefcase that have something to do with a historical 'Ring of Fire'. Events are set in motion, and they must work together to work against the evil killer (and whoever sent him) who's hunting them down.

Book 1 indeed - only about half your questions are actually answered, which isn't bad, just kind of sad (because I don't intend to read anymore). I wasn't sure if I liked the ending either. The plot is OK, though all the historical stuff is nice. And a couple parts did pleasantly surprise me.

I liked that it's set in Rome, and the author takes you all around historical places. The scenes were set very well.

The characters... not so much. I understand it's translated, perhaps not very well, but I felt the characters were not well defined. Like I could describe them a little as individuals, but for most part they weren't that different from each other. At least Sheng says 'hao' a lot, I liked that, and though its subtle I felt the characters had developed a bit by the end ('grown up' a little I suppose).

Their actions didn't always make sense. Now, it's a while since I've been 12, but even kids have reasons for doing things. Nothing major, really, just -- why did they decide to wander alone at night in the middle of a blackout during a snow-storm instead of waking an adult or (heaven forbid) waiting until morning? Stuff like that.
One thing really baffled me -- why they were so quick to go around looking for clues and talking to strangers, but didn't bother asking their parents or other acquaintances any questions (did Elettra not know anyone around where she lived?).

In the end, it was kind of entertaining, but aside from some neat visuals I didn't gain much from the book. I DO, however, recommend it to children around 8-12, if only for the setting, and because it's not a stereotypical book. And if the sequels really do take place in each of the different cities the kids are from, that might be really fun to read.

Recommended fantasy books: Ella Enchanted, The Thief (The Queen's Thief, Book 1), Power of Three, Prophecy of the Stones, The, and Children Of The Lamp: The Akhenaten Adventure.

"Awesome" in the words of my 12-year old daughter.

As I do with juvenile books from the Vine program I hand them off to my two voracious readers...my 12 year old daughter and 11 year old son. After all, they're the target audience...what good would a review by an adult be when trying to decide on a book for a teen or pre-teen? (Ok, there is content and suitability but for these books I'm not concerned there will be inappropriate things in it) That would be like giving my wife (who does not like to cook) kitchen products to review.

The "kids save the day" theme was popular when I was a kid (anyone remember The Three Detectives series - The Mystery of the Stuttering Parrot (The Three Investigators No. 2)) and it's still just as popular today. "Percy Jackson and the Olympians" and the Harry Potter series are popular with my kids, and my son is on his second reading of Ender's Game (Ender, Book 1). This book is right up their alley.

They both really liked the book. I'm sure it's not great literature but they don't complain about the writing. They found the story to be very enganging and both liked the twists at the end. They gave the book 5 stars and recommend it to their friends (my daughter has seen it in the library at her school). And as further proof they really liked the book...they're both looking forward to the next book in the series, Century #2: Star of Stone.

The Ring of Fire / 978-0-37-585895-6

The difficulty with reviewing books for children is that, well, I'm not a child, and I can only rely on my admittedly imperfect memory to decide whether a book I don't like *now* could, perhaps, have been more likable when I was younger. With "Ring of Fire", however, I am fairly confident that I would find this book tedious and tiresome regardless of my age.

"Ring of Fire" starts out well enough. A string of coincidences (or are they? *cue suspenseful music*) end with four children, all born on February 29th, sharing a room on New Year's Eve. It's hinted that each child has an unusual or supernatural ability, but we really only learn that the quasi-main character, Elettra, has the "ability" to see her reflection when she closes her eyes and cannot use mirrors too often or they "get dull". Also, electronic things sometimes go haywire whenever she's around - your basic Magic Child syndrome symptoms, basically.

When a mysterious blackout covers the city, ostensibly caused by Elettra's issues with electricity and technology, the children spill out curiously onto the streets of Rome, and here is where we hit the biggest obstacle with this book - the Psychic Scavenger Hunt. Every event from here on in the book is driven by the children going to a specific location (the professor's favorite cafe, the professor's library office, the professor's secret apartment flat, etc.) in order to find a clue (a map! a business card! a ringing phone with an old acquaintance on the other end!) to propel them to the NEXT location. Half the time, the impetus that sends the children to their next scheduled stop is nothing more than a "feeling" that they need to go to such-and-so place, or a mysterious "feeling" that they need to *leave* the current place.

This may seem like a small point, but these random and unlikely "feelings" and "clues" drive the entire book from beginning to end, and it's terrible story telling. All drama or exposition is tossed aside in favor of a direct phone line to the author, with him telling the characters which tourist spot in Rome he wants them to shuffle off to next, in order for them to "find" the next clue. It's particularly annoying when the "finding" of the clue is something else equally unlikely, like a map pasted under a diner table that the kids find immediately ('Finding' scenes generally go something like: "Here's the professor's usual table. Let's look under it and see if there's anything there. Hey, there's a map!" How dramatic.) or a phone ringing for their attention when they walk into an apartment.

Coincidence and authorial inserts can drive a plot, though, when there's something else there to compensate and hold the readers interest. All the basic elements are lacking, though - the "villain" is amusingly non-frightening, in spite of the author's insistent attempts to paint him as a scary, urbanite murderer. I swear I am not making this up: the villain in "Ring of Fire" kills people by slitting their throats with a violin bow. Which he also uses to pick locks. And he can play magical music on his violin that hypnotizes people.

As for the MacGuffin itself, the Ring of Fire that the children hunt for, the attempts to shroud the origins (and indeed the point) of the bloody thing fall flat and rather than being intrigued, the reader is just annoyed and bored. Much of the exposition in this area comes off as ridiculous name-dropping as the author attempts to Show His Work and drop in every famous name ever. You see, there's this Magic Map (a wooden thing with grooves in it) and you use it by overlaying a real map (like, say, of Rome) on top of it, and then you locate objects by - I swear this is true - spinning four wooden tops over the map. The tops follow the grooves and come to rest at their magically correct locations. The name-dropping comes into play when the author insert character starts insisting that this map has been used (and signed!!!) by Alexander the Great, the Magi (Caspar, Melchior, and Balthasar), Marco Polo, Christopher Columbus (possibly the oddest one of all because he wouldn't have had a map to lay over the magic one - if he'd HAD a map, he wouldn't have needed the magic map and tops routine), Plato (to find Atlantic, of course), and about 20+ other famous names. Oh, and here are a few more names we're going to drop into the narrative: "Nero", "Seneca", "Aristotle", "Socrates". They don't really have anything to do with the story, per se, but the author looked them up at one point or another when writing this story, so by gum he's going to include them.

When we do get to the 'climax' (such as it is), the entire affair feels rushed and badly done, and the final ending is such a set-up for a proper sequel that it feels like this entire book has been a very long, tedious, and unnecessary introduction to 'the real story'. This is NOT how series should start - the first book should stand on its own as a decent tale, even if it's a decent tale with a cliff-hanger. The first book should not feel (as this book does) like an intro sequence that we finally waded through so that the actual story can begin.

A final note on this book: I'm all about books written in other languages and cultures, but they need to be well-translated and this book is not. Sentences are often unnaturally short and clipped and the tense changes frequently from past tense ("Elettra walked across the room,") to present (",and she picks up the map.") often in the same sentence. I'm not the Grammar Police, but I found the style to be very jerky and un-immersive. Also, I will note here - without prejudice - that the American child of the trio comes off regularly as the most annoying and useless, commonly complaining that the random magic events don't make sense and he just wants to forget all this nonsense and go get a pizza (well, I found the advice rather prudent, but he's supposed to be annoying and it shows). All the other parents (Italian, French, Chinese) are confident and laid-back and allow their kids to solve mysteries all over Rome, but the American parents screech and whine when their teenage son isn't within eyesight and they frequently threaten to sue people whenever they're annoyed. I'll leave it to the reader whether or not this behavior is amusingly-close-to-home or stereotypically-offensive - mileage is going to vary on this one.

I will note that this book made me laugh exactly once - albeit probably not in the way the author intended. When the American boy refuses to follow the magic map saying that "9 times out of 10" it will be wrong, the author insert character snaps back, completely seriously (paraphrase), "So? Nine times out of ten your horoscope will be wrong, but that's no reason not to follow it!!"

NOTE: This review is based on a free Advance Review Copy of this book provided through Amazon Vine.

~ Ana Mardoll

The Ring of Fire is set in present day Rome. Four children with amazing birthdays meet and are pulled into solving a mystery that dates back to before the time of Nero. An amazing map, some special tops, and a paranoid professor give them clues for finding the Ring of Fire, a treasure that has been lost for at least a century. The kids know only the surface of the puzzle, but conversations among those in the know are presented to let the reader know that there is a deeper plot afoot. The children (2 girls, 2 boys, all age 12ish and from all over the globe) are chased by menacing characters and helped by unlikely females. Though the ending was not entirely satisfying, it is a first book out of four. A good read, but clearly only the beginning.

I can honestly say I have not read a young adult book this bad in a long time. 88 pages into Ring of Fire and I just had to quit and give time to another book that would have better writing and a story more engaging. The center section of cool glossy photos intrigued me, but it had to be bad when I didn't even bother to wait to get that far to see how the photos figured into the story.

Four young teenagers are thrown together on December 29th, in one room at a hotel in Rome due to an error in hotel reservations and discover they all have the exact same birthday of February 29th. Mistral is a young girl from Paris, Sheng is a boy from China, Elettra is the daughter of the hotel owner, and Harvey is an American Boy. It starts to snow outside on their first night which is a rare event in Rome, and while sitting around chatting, an electrical blackout also strangely occurs. The four teenagers venture out to see the snow and to see if the whole city is without electricity and while doing so run into a running, screaming madman asking them for help. Appearing like a frightening lunatic, the man scares them and at first the kids start to run away. But at the last moment, Elettra hears the man say "29", and feels he must have a connection to them. They were all born on the 29th, this night was the 29th, and the man was repeating 29 over and over. Too much to be a coincidence.

What really bothered me was that, although this book could have been an interesting children's fantasy mystery, the writing was deplorable. The dialog between the kids was so sappy, and so ridiculously stupid it was almost painful to read. The author presented these kids to be clueless, flaky, and as ditzy as could be, making the reader not like these characters right from the beginning. They were lifeless, dumb and profoundly uninteresting. I can abide by many things in both adult and children's literature, and usually give a book more of a chance before calling it quits, but I can't accept amateur writing so bad in makes you cringe. I felt the author was one of those young adult writers that wrote down to kids, and not only made the writing appear immature, but the characters as well. I have to say, give this a miss and spend time on another book more worthy. Not a good debut in my opinion and can only hope that because this is a planned quartet series that the author improves greatly. I was very disappointed in this book!

Elettra is the daughter of a hotel owner in Rome, and she has always done her part to help with anything the hotel needs. When there is a mix-up with reservations, she offers to allow three children from different cities of the world to spend their time in her bedroom with her. Their first night, they discover that not only do they now share a bedroom as their sleeping quarters, but the same birth date, February 29th, Leap Day. It is a coincidence that shouldn't be looked over, and is the start of a fantastic adventure for these children.

Harvey is from New York, and he is probably the most logical of the children. He's not the type to rush head first into a situation without thinking it over first, and to him, a coincidence is just that. He has always been a quiet child, but an adventure in the city of Rome may be just what he needs to wake him up.

Mistral is from Paris, and she is an only child, living with her mother. She's artistic and doesn't leave home without her sketch pad. She is elegant, quiet, and never gets into any trouble. She thinks that there may be something behind the coincidental birthday issue among her and her new found friends, and she's all for an adventure, even if it does sound scary.

Sheng is from the city of Shanghai, and he is by far the goofiest of the four children. He is loud, and outspoken at times. The prospect of an adventure only makes him more excited, but he also brings comedy to this novel. I found myself looking forward to moments with Sheng, as he always seemed to make the best of things throughout their adventure.

When reading this book, I had only really one complaint, and that was the point of view in which it was written. I felt like it needed to be written in more of a first person view, rather than the third-person aspect that it was. I would have enjoyed this story more if I were able to read it from the point-of-view of the children. I think it would have given the book more feeling, especially during the times where they were faced with decisions that would induce great emotion.

I also have to admit that for a child, this book may seem a little scary at times, especially when the man that forces the briefcase on them is murdered. I was a little shocked at the method of killing that the murderer used, as well as some of his other actions. Personally my sister would be able to handle this, as she is mature for her age at 10, but I've noticed that some children aren't as lucky.

I'm more than willing to continue reading this story, and look forward to reading the second installment, Star of Stone, where their adventure will continue in the streets of New York. It's scheduled to be released on September 28, 2010, according to Amazon.

If CENTURY: THE RING OF FIRE were a Jeopardy category, it'd be Hodgepodge. You get a little bit of everything in this book. Contemporary realistic fiction, fantasy, history, thriller, mystery. Of course, such a line-up can be both blessing and curse. For a writer, it's like juggling five plates of bone china at once. And if you're not up to the task, there's going to be some shards of dinnerware scattered around your feet.

The premise starts simply enough: four kids who share a birthday of Feb. 29th all meet in Rome at the same time in the same hotel. One is the hotel proprietors' daughter, Elettra (our protagonist), another an artistically-bent French girl, Mistral, another a Chinese boy prone to shouting, "Hao!" a lot (name of Sheng), and a fourth your typically-jaded American teen, Harvey. A strange man (later learned to be a professor) finds them and gives them a mysterious briefcase. Said professor is subsequently murdered by a violin-wielding hitman (his bow is like Oddjob's hat brim, if you will). The kids find four wooden tops, an obscure map, and mysterious writing in the briefcase, meaning they have to answer some questions in a hurry because, clearly, Mr. Violin wants something and he's willing to play them the Ultimate Lullaby to get it.

It's a slow go reaching this point in the novel, but once you're there, the plot begins to pick up a tad. Unfortunately, author P.D. Baccalario strains credibility a bit as he repeatedly has our young heroes pretend that they are the now-dead professor over the phone and make arrangements to meet various contacts who might help them. Not only are the kids completely accepted, they are often assisted by these people (who don't know them from the Fantastic Four). Rome. City of Gullible People, I guess. Meanwhile, the connection to their birthdays remains unclear, and the Ring of Fire (object of their quest) is traced murkily back to Nero (who supposedly fiddled -- a violin reference -- while Rome burned).

It's difficult to build any tension, however, once the reader realizes that the author will simply write the youngsters' way out of any tight spot he gets them into by having everything that could possibly go their way work. And that hurts the book. Still, I played along until the end, and suspect many young readers might, too. The contemporary realistic angle came from situating the action in Rome and almost making it a character in the book (like Barcelona is in Carlos Ruiz Zafón's THE SHADOW OF THE WIND). The history angle comes from Nero. Thrills? Think of our first violinist. And mystery? That card is Baccalario's ace in the hole. Yes, he has some talent and his big ideas are noble enough. I just think he overwhelms himself a bit, tripping over his own plot strands at times. As for the characterization and description, don't look for succor there. If anything, it's the mystery angle that will pull you along once you pass the halfway mark. You're curious about what this Ring of Fire will do. I won't divulge the answer, but I will say I probably won't be scouring the stores for Book #2 when it comes out. Who knows, though. Maybe it'll take a turn for the better. The elements are in place. They're just in need of the correct catalyst.

I first let my 10 year old daughter read this book, and she couldn't put it down. Intrigued by her enthusiasm and the book description, I also read it. Whenever an author writes a book for kids that also has an adult eagerly turning pages, you know you have a winner. Four kids meet for the first time in Rome, under a strange coincidence. Together they have to solve a mystery, complete with shadowy figures, a scary hit man, clues left behind by a stranger, and a little help where they least expect it. My daughter's only disappointment was learning that the next book in the series is not yet available.