Customer Reviews

Gatekeepers: Ravens Gate (After Words)

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Raven's Gate is about a boy called Matthew Freeman. When he is taken into custody for a crime he didn't commit, he has two choices: go to jail or go to a town called Lesser Malling and live with an old woman named Mrs. Deverill. He chooses Lesser Malling. When he starts living there. he begins to notice strange things are happening. The people are weird, and when a farmer tries to help him escape, he is killed the next day. All of this is intertwined with a sinister place called Raven's Gate. Even his own life is in danger. This book is a real page-turner. You won't want to put it down until you're finished.

If you like great exciting books you are in for an amazing journey in Raven's Gate, an amazing book by Anthony Horowitz. This book is a fantastic science fiction between two worlds, the regular world, and an ancient place from ten thousand years ago filled with the evil of the underworld and chaos. Colliding into one and the only person that can stop the madness before it spreads to the rest of the present world is a fourteen year old kid named Matt Freeman. He predicted his parent's death on their honeymoon. He then gets stuck within a program called the LEAF Protection, a government program tests that juvenile and gives them a second chance before prison. There they get to live with someone else until their time is up. Unfortunately, his "parent" that is taking care of him is a person who is related to a group who wants to summon the ancient world and knows about the five people who can stop the madness Matt then goes through a series of events that lead him to the knowledge of the five people, the two worlds, and why it is important to stop them. He then realizes that his "parents" that want to kill him so he doesn't stop the madness of the two worlds. This book may be short for the average reader at one hundred and fifty-four pages long, but this book will have you turning pages until you're finished and wanting to read the second book. If this description meets the needs of your version of a good book, than read this book because you will be happy by the end of the book.

Back in the late 80's early 90's, Anthony Horowitz wrote a series of novellas called "The Power of Five" The titles were: The Devils Doorbell; Night of the Scorpian; The Silver Citadel and Day of the Dragon. I believe there was a fifth, but it's so rare that I'm not even aware of the title.

This,and the books that will follow, are based on those tales and such a hatchet job the man has done with the premise.

He has taken the novella's, padded them out and added more characters and text, the result of this means that the contrast in the writing styles is extremely noticeable. As unfortunately, he seems to be trying to drag in all of his 'Alex Rider' fans, so, in place of one boy trying to make sense of his destiny, we have vast organisations who know of him, feeding him the plot and traipsing round after him. And of course he is no longer an innocent orphan, but a hard edged 'street' boy (or something similar). Cue lots of explosions and action and say farewell to the chilling atmosphere that made the originals so special.

If you can find any of the original 'Power of Five' series... read them...

I picked up Raven's Gate and Evil Star as the same time. Raven's Gate is the first book in the GateKeepers series by Anthony Horowitz. I don't rate Horowitz as highly as my favorite author Robert Stanek but I do like his Alex Rider books. I have all the the Alex Rider books actually. Raven's Gate is the story of 14 year old Matt Freeman. Since his parents were killed in a car accident, Matt lives with his aunt and he's always getting into trouble at home and at school. When he decided to break into a warehouse with a friend, his life turns from bad to worse. He is charged with stabbing a security guard (which his friend did). Matt gets a second chance when he is sent into a program for troubled kids called LEAF. Matt's life doesn't get better though as he is forced to do massive amounts of chores and cleaning. He tries to escape but never succeeds. Then he finds an old picture from his parents funeral and finally figures out there's something sinister going on and that's when things get worse and worse. Anyone who he gets to help him is killed.

Mathew Freeman is a boy of thirteen years of age living with a greedy Aunt named Gwenda Davis in London.At the age of eight years old Matt's parents were killed in a car accident on the way to a wedding. A strange thing happened though. The night prior to the day of the wedding, Matt had a dream that his parents would be killed in a car accident the next day. Right before they were all about to leave Matt suddenly said that he did not want to go with his parents to the wedding. He was an an only child and was a bit spoiled so naturally they agreed to let him stay with their neighbor, Ms. Green. Then later that morning a constable comes to their neighbors house and tells Matt that his parents died on the way to the wedding. He then fosters out and go lives with Gwenda Davis. Gwenda and her boyfriend then spend the fortune left to Matt by his parents . Matt then starts hanging out with a seventeen year old boy named Kelvin. He ends up getting busted as an accessory to murder while trying to rob an electronics warehouse. He is then put in the LEAF project and he is sent with an old lady to a small town named Lesser Malling which is a town full of vampires. He then runs into a secret organisation called the Nexus which is dedicated to fighting ancient evil beings called the Old Ones from coming to Earth through inter-dimensional gates. Matt finds out he is part of the five original gatekeepers born to keep the gates from opening. The first one is Ravens Gate. There are five boys and one girl. Matt will me new people and will be helped and hurt on his journey to destroy Ravens Gate. Matt survives life with Mrs.Deverell his new foster vampire parent. Will he succeed? Who are the Old Ones? Will Mathew Freeman survive Ravens Gate? This book answers all these questions as New York times Best-Selling author Anthony Horowitz does it again in Ravens Gate.

Mathew Freeman is a boy of thirteen years of age living with a greedy Aunt named Gwenda Davis in London.At the age of eight years old Matt's parents were killed in a car accident on the way to a wedding. A strange thing happened though. The night prior to the day of the wedding, Matt had a dream that his parents would be killed in a car accident the next day. Right before they were all about to leave Matt suddenly said that he did not want to go with his parents to the wedding. He was an an only child and was a bit spoiled so naturally they agreed to let him stay with their neighbor, Ms. Green. Then later that morning a constable comes to their neighbors house and tells Matt that his parents died on the way to the wedding. He then fosters out and go lives with Gwenda Davis. Gwenda and her boyfriend then spend the fortune left to Matt by his parents . Matt then starts hanging out with a seventeen year old boy named Kelvin. He ends up getting busted as an accessory to murder while trying to rob an electronics warehouse. He is then put in the LEAF project and he is sent with an old lady to a small town named Lesser Malling which is a town full of vampires. He then runs into a secret organisation called the Nexus which is dedicated to fighting ancient evil beings called the Old Ones from coming to Earth through inter-dimensional gates. Matt finds out he is part of the five original gatekeepers born to keep the gates from opening. The first one is Ravens Gate. There are five boys and one girl. Matt will me new people and will be helped and hurt on his journey to destroy Ravens Gate. Matt survives life with Mrs.Deverell his new foster ampire parent. Will he succeed? Who are the Old Ones? Will Mathew Freeman survive Ravens Gate? This book answers all these questions as New York times Best-Selling author Anthony Horowitz does it again in Ravens Gate.

Mathew Freeman is a boy of thirteen years of age living with a greedy Aunt named Gwenda Davis in London.At the age of eight years old Matt's parents were killed in a car accident on the way to a wedding. A strange thing happened though. The night prior to the day of the wedding, Matt had a dream that his parents would be killed in a car accident the next day. Right before they were all about to leave Matt suddenly said that he did not want to go with his parents to the wedding. He was an an only child and was a bit spoiled so naturally they agreed to let him stay with their neighbor, Ms. Green. Then later that morning a constable comes to their neighbors house and tells Matt that his parents died on the way to the wedding. He then fosters out and go lives with Gwenda Davis. Gwenda and her boyfriend then spend the fortune left to Matt by his parents . Matt then starts hanging out with a seventeen year old boy named Kelvin. He ends up getting busted as an accessory to murder while trying to rob an electronics warehouse. He is then put in the LEAF project and he is sent with an old lady to a small town named Lesser Malling which is a town full of vampires. He then runs into a secret organisation called the Nexus which is dedicated to fighting ancient evil beings called the Old Ones from coming to Earth through inter-deminsional gates. Matt finds out he is part of the five original gatekeepers born to keep the gates from opening. The first one is Ravens Gate. There are five boys and one girl. Matt will me new people and will be helped and hurt on his journey to destroy Ravens Gate. Matt survives life with Mrs.Deverell his new foster ampire parent. Will he succeed? Who are the Old Ones? Will Mathew Freeman survive Ravens Gate? This book answers all these questions as New York times Best-Selling author Anthony Horowitz does it again in Ravens Gate.

Mathew Freeman is a boy of thirteen years of age living with a greedy Aunt named Gwenda Davis in London.At the age of eight years old Matt's parents were killed in a car accident on the way to a wedding. A strange thing happened though. The night prior to the day of the wedding, Matt had a dream that his parents would be killed in a car accident the next day. Right before they were all about to leave Matt suddenly said that he did not want to go with his parents to the wedding. He was an an only child and was a bit spoiled so naturally they agreed to let him stay with their neighbor, Ms. Green. Then later that morning a constable comes to their neighbors house and tells Matt that his parents died on the way to the wedding. He then fosters out and go lives with Gwenda Davis. Gwenda and her boyfriend then spend the fortune left to Matt by his parents . Matt then starts hanging out with a seventeen year old boy named Kelvin. He ends up getting busted as an accessory to murder while trying to rob an electronics warehouse. He is then put in the LEAF project and he is sent with an old lady to a small town named Lesser Malling which is a town full of vampires. He then runs into a secret organisation called the Nexus which is dedicated to fighting ancient evil beings called the Old Ones from coming to Earth through inter-deminsional gates. Matt finds out he is part of the five original gatekeepers born to keep the gates from opening. The first one is Ravens Gate. There are five boys and one girl. Matt will me new people and will be helped and hurt on his journey to destroy Ravens Gate. Matt survives life with Mrs.Deverell his new foster ampire parent. Will he succeed? Who are the Old Ones? Will Mathew Freeman survive Ravens Gate? This book answers all these questions as New York times Best-Selling author Anthony Horowitz does it again in Ravens Gate.

I read the book all the way through, but found it a bit too dark for my taste, and so, consequently, not as much fun to read as I had hoped. The writing and story pacing was excellent, but the premise put me off a bit. I have no plans of reading future episodes.