The Fire Reapers by Patricia Robertson, is a new book that got published in November.
It is about a 12-year-old boy Named Neil, living in the Yukon. While he is driving to Dawson City with his uncle, he finds a dog, Freya. They both travel into the future, where they find out that it is all burned up and that the government, the fire reapers, are trying to destroy the earth. He meets an ash-gatherer girl named Astra and together they team up to defeat the fire reapers.
I like The Fire Reapers because it is very descriptive, but doesn’t bore you with all the details. I liked that it puts you on the edge, and keeps you there until the very end. I also like that the book has a lot of imagination, and has things like “mood food” that could be from the future. I would call it a fantasy book.
The ending is a little sad, but it feel like it adds to the story in a nice way.
The only thing that I didn’t like, was that the people in the book sometimes use what I would call bad language, but it could be worse.
Here is an excerpt from chapter 3 — this is where it first gets exciting:
In the middle of the night a cold wet nose nudged him awake. He rolled over groggily. The clock on his night table said 3:17. Freya was sitting upright, staring at him. “No, Freya,” he said firmly. It wasn’t like her to do this. “Lie down.” He lay back down himself but she bumped him again with her nose, twice, three times. He sat up and switched on his bedside lamp, annoyed. “What’s the problem, huh?” She looked at him steadily with those big brown eyes of hers, then ran to the door, whining. There was no help for it. He climbed out of bed, shivering. The room, so hot earlier, was freezing. He flung on his bathrobe and, at the last minute, grabbed his cell phone, just in case. As he opened the door, Freya shot downstairs ahead of him, making her warning sound in her throat – ouf, ouf. He tiptoed after her, the hairs on the back of his neck prickling. Was someone in the house?
If you’re looking for an interesting book to give to someone, adult or chid, for Christmas I definitely recommend this book.
Yukon author Patricia Robertson’s book The Fire Reapers sells for $16.95 and is available in Whitehorse at Coles Books, Mac’s Fireweed Books, and Well-Read Books. It is also available as print-on-demand and e-book through www.lulu.com.
