fantasy book reviews science fiction book reviewsbook review M.T. Anderson THe Game of Sunken PlacesThe Game of Sunken Places by M.T. Anderson

The Game of Sunken Places has at its core several relatively humdrum concepts: a board game that plays for real, a hidden kingdom, two friends (one timid, one outgoing), a race to save the (or a) world. This isn’t so bad since so much fantasy works with the same basic materials. The question is whether the author transcends the familiar and here the answer tends to be no.

The story follows a pair of thirteen-year-old friends, Gregory and Brian, as they go up to Vermont to visit Uncle Max (not really related) and cousin Prudence. Tension is set from the start by a surprisingly dark intro piece set at Max’s. Once the boys arrive, they become quickly embroiled in playing the game, or, as it’s referred to by everyone, The Game, the board version of which they found in the old nursery. The boys must solve riddles; avoid near-fatal run-ins with their seeming opponent Jack; deal with trolls, ogres, elves; explore hidden cities and sunken rivers and so on.

The game play is somewhat jumbled and all too arbitrary, with little sense of import or menace despite the various pronouncements of impending doom. The boys wander from oddly named place to oddly named place with no real sense of meaning, even at the end when all is explained. The two boys are also a bit muddled, not sharply enough defined. The same can be said of all the characters save one, the troll, who stands out as the only character of any depth in the book.

In the end, neither the story nor the characters offer much of a compelling nature and while Game isn’t a bad book, it doesn’t rise to the level of much that is out there to read. Therefore not recommended.

Norumbegan Quartet — (2004-2012) Ages 9-12. Publisher: When Brian and Gregory receive an invitation to stay at a distant relative’s strange manse… well, they should know better than to go, since this is a middle-grade adventure novel. But they go anyway. Why not? Once there, they stumble upon The Game of Sunken Places, a board game that mirrors a greater game in which they have suddenly become players. Soon the boys are dealing with attitudinal trolls, warring kingdoms,and some very starchy britches. Luckily, they have wit, deadpan observation, and a keen sense of adventure on their side.

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  • Bill Capossere

    BILL CAPOSSERE, who's been with us since June 2007, lives in Rochester NY, where he is an English adjunct by day and a writer by night. His essays and stories have appeared in Colorado Review, Rosebud, Alaska Quarterly, and other literary journals, along with a few anthologies, and been recognized in the "Notable Essays" section of Best American Essays. His children's work has appeared in several magazines, while his plays have been given stage readings at GEVA Theatre and Bristol Valley Playhouse. When he's not writing, reading, reviewing, or teaching, he can usually be found with his wife and son on the frisbee golf course or the ultimate frisbee field.

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