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The Emperor of North America [Paperback]

John McnIchol
4.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)

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Book Description

August 25, 2011
John McNichol’s The Emperor of North America The Young Chesterton Chronicles Book 2 It’s been over a year since Gilbert Keith Chesterton and his friends defeated the Martian tripod invasion. Since then, he has a new faith, a new job as a reporter for the London Times, and a new love—a beautiful heiress named Frances. Life couldn’t be better. But then things begin to go very wrong. Disturbing questions surface from Gilbert’s murky past. His best friend Herb’s sudden, unexplained wealth has made him distant and evasive. And the mysterious redheaded woman reappears, with trouble surely behind her. When Gilbert learns his life is in jeopardy, he leaves England and returns to his American homeland, where he thinks he’ll be safe. There he meets a powerful man who calls himself the “Emperor of North America.” Why has he taken such a keen interest in Gilbert’s career? Gilbert fights past dogged, airborne assassins and steam-powered cowboys, through the streets of New York and a floating city in the clouds. Along the way he learns that while his adversaries may change, America may not be any safer than England. For it is in America that both Gilbert and Herb will confront their most dangerous opponents yet...themselves. About the Book The Emperor of North America by John McNichol is the sequel to the bestselling novel The Tripods Attack! and the second volume in the Young Chesterton Chronicles—a delightfully inventive fiction series for teens to adults that re-imagines the famous Catholic author as a young man living in an alternative Edwardian age of steam-driven wonders. “The Tripods Attack is a page-turning adventure of Chestertonian proportions, a feast of the imagination for the young and for adults. It rendered this reader ready to read more Chesterton, as well as, this, McNichol’s next volume!” Kevin Vost, Psy.D., bestselling author of Tending the Temple and Memorize the Faith!

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The Emperor of North America + The Tripods Attack! (The Young Chesterton Chronicles)
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Product Details

  • Paperback: 472 pages
  • Publisher: Bezalel Books (August 25, 2011)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 193645307X
  • ISBN-13: 978-1936453078
  • Product Dimensions: 5.5 x 1 x 8.5 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
  • Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #922,920 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

John McNichol was born in Toronto, Canada at the dawn of the swinging 70s...which likely explains why he is such a fan of the Big 80s. He lived the first eighteen years of his life in Toronto, leaving to attend college at Franciscan University of Steubenville in Ohio.
College agreed with him in more ways than one. He received an excellent level of academic and spiritual formation at FUS, and credits it to this day with his ability to focus a life of faith onto creative pursuits. Most important, it was at FUS that John he met his American wife, and later lived as a legal resident in the United States since his graduation and wedding in 1992.

John now lives in Vancouver, Washington, with his wife Jeanna, their seven children and The Dumbest Dog In The State Of Washington. John is a Middle School teacher by trade, and continues to pursue excellence in his vocation while writing steampunk-themed science fiction about his favorite authors and literary characters. He became a proud American citizen on September 19th, 2012.

John's first book, "The Tripods Attack," was published by Sophia Press in March 2008. Part of a trilogy titled "The Young Chesterton Chronicles," the second volume, "The Emperor of North America," is now available from Bezalel Books. His novel for the 9-12 year old Market, "The King's Gambit", was published by Hillside in October of 2013. He is currently at work on the final volume of the YCC, "Where the Red Sands Fly."

John loves loaded pizzas, meaty lasagnas, killing 3-5 hours at a stretch at his local Barnes & Noble on the weekend and seeing fan art based on his works. He hates broccoli. Hates it. Still.

Customer Reviews

4.9 out of 5 stars
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
I don't read a lot of fiction, and when I do I appreciate a book that keeps me on the edge of my seat, which made this book difficult to read while sunk into my recliner. The action in this book starts off at warp speed and amps up the warps as each chapter progresses, which is why I read its 470 pages in about three evenings.

The feel and the fun of this book recalls to my mind the Wild Wild West television series my brother and I loved so much as kids back in the 1960s. There are rangers, detectives, wacky inventors, villains galore, beautiful damsels both evil and good, and, of course, our great, though young Chestertonian hero. There are all kinds of fun surprises and cameos too, one of my favorites being a young British boy who would later credit Chesterton with his conversion to Christ, and gain great fame with his tales of Narnia.

I won't go into the plot with its intriguing twists, leaving them for you to unravel and enjoy, but I'll point out one of my favorite little extras The Emperor of North America provides in a superabundance. In crafting this adventure, McNichol gives free rein to his imagination in a way I think Chesterton would have approved. This is no fictionalized biography of a young G. K. Chesterton, but a freewheeling tale of McNichol's invention. Still, the spirit and words of G.K.C. are in there aplenty, especially in those little extras I'm finally getting around to explaining. At the beginning of each and every of one of this book's 84 fast-paced chapters is a quote from the actual writings of Chesterton himself, and part of the fun for me was seeing how deftly they presaged the goings-on within each of those chapters.

I found this book a joy to read. Congratulations John, and Hail to The Emperor of North America!

Kevin Vost, Psy.D. is the author of Tending the Temple, Three Irish Saints, and other such books.
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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars Gil Chesterton, Herb Wells, and a Whole Lotta Steampunk October 10, 2011
Format:Paperback
If Gilbert Chesterton and Herb Wells were best friends in a steampunk universe when they were 17 and had a crazy adventure involving airships, robots, flying cities, Pinkerton men, a mysterious female nemesis, Gil's true love, a couple of courageous young lads who double as inventors, and much more ... then you would have this book.

It grabbed me in a most unexpected way as you may be able to tell from the fact that I picked it up yesterday morning to read something different and early that evening found myself on page 300. I polished it off this morning. It's an adventure a minute but with time here and there to consider a few deeper things in life ... before being whisked off to another phase of the adventure.

Who is it that is after Gil and never quits trying, using all the forces that money can buy, to get their hands on him? And why would anyone be interested in a young journalist?

What a great time this book is ... all those disparate ingredients may make it sound chaotic but the author just keeps sending you further on the adventure and it all makes perfect sense at the time it is happening.

In the final analysis, I really enjoyed this and definitely recommend it. There are strains of Catholic worldview that are shown as part of various characters' moral fiber and others are shown espousing different views that are set in opposition. I didn't find these to be preachy or moralistic, and they were not the main focus of the action, though they definitely motivated actions. As with all things of this nature, your milage may vary.

I would say that although I enjoyed the mash-up of real and fictional characters, toward the end it did become a bit wearying to have every single major character be referential. It would have been nice to have a few main characters be solely of the author's creation. Perhaps in the next adventure he will venture into that new world. He has it in him and must merely be not afraid. I, personally, also did not like the back story for Gilbert's parents. It would have been nice to have something be what it appeared on the surface and see how that affected a character as well. To have those sorts of simpler characters encounter the over-arching conspiracy would have been refreshing.

However, as I say, I really enjoyed the book. It is those few problems above that kept it from being a five-star review for me. But they are small things indeed. It's a fun ride and one that left me interested in the first book of the series which I haven't encountered yet and whatever adventures McNichol sends Gil and Herb on in the future.
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars My Son & I love this series November 22, 2011
Format:Paperback
My son & I read The Tripods Attack when it first came out, and we got so impatient for the sequel that we started pestering Mr. McNichol. (Who invited us to pizza when we were in town and signed our copy of Tripods -- awesome guy. I'm on the record as nominating him for Coolest Author In The Universe.) We were not the least bit disappointed with Emperor -- I'd say I was pleasantly surprised with all the new twists and surprises.

What it is: An action-packed Catholic steampunk alternate history in which young GK Chesterton fights aliens (first book) and Bond-caliber bad guys (this book). Ton of fun. Something the boy and I really loved was trying to figure out all the literary and historical references. As a mom, I like the catholic worldview, which is authentic, challenging, and never gooey sweet or over-easy. JDM is a middle school teacher and dad to teens, and you can tell he has a feel for what real teens talk about and think about. My son likes the action.

Age appropriateness: I give it a PG for violence and mature themes related to violence -- described with a restrained hand, but this isn't the Bobbsey Twins. Romantic scenes are g-rated -- chaste as you can be and still feature a normal teenage boy who gets close enough to kiss the female lead.

Reading level: My son read the first book in elementary school, but I'd recommend this for most readers middle school and up. You need to be able to read big words and long sentences, follow a complex plot with lots of characters, and stick it out through a lot of pages. But, this is THE BOOK for getting your boy to sit down read. It's long, but it is action-packed and the plot never slows the whole way through. Genuine page-turner.

Bonus Parent Approval: My son has learned so much about history and literature using Wikipedia to look up all the cameos. You can enjoy the book just as a story. But solving the puzzle of "who's that?" adds a layer of fun long after you've put the book down. Also, after reading Emperor, my son went back and searched through Tripods looking for any missed cameos in that one.

I really love this series and can't wait for the next one to come out. Highly recommended as a gift item if you know a teen who is looking for a good action/adventure book, or for anyone who enjoys a fun, readable story featuring GK Chesterton, or sci-fi action-adventure, or both.

[Note: I usually find Sci-Fi and the like boring. This, I can't put down until it is done.]
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