The 39 Clues Book 3: The Sword Thief by Peter Lerangis Review

When The Sword Thief by Peter Lerangis was first released all the way in early 2009, I was super excited. I had zoomed through the first pair of novels in The 39 Clues kids book series, the latest one being One False Note by Gordon Korman, and the series was coming along very well. Great story, terrific mystery, as well as fantastic characters. What more could a young reader want?

The 39 Clues is a multi-author book series written by very popular, bestselling authors about orphans Dan and Amy Cahill. When their grandmother Grace dies, they learn that they happen to be members of the most powerful family in history. The source of their families power is hidden all over the globe in the form of thirty-nine separate clues. The person who locates all of the clues will become the most powerful person in human history.

Amy and Dan Cahill, of course, are definitely not alone in wanting to find the prize. Their shifty, back-stabbing relatives will do anything possible in order to be the 1st to find the clues.

Like all of the early stories in The 39 Clues series, I finished reading The Sword Thief the very day that I got it. Even though it was an interesting novel and moved the series along, I remember not being too pleased with the book.

Summary

Towards the conclusion of One False Note, Dan and Amy locate samurai swords at the site of the last clue. They take the hint and fly to Japan. Before Amy and Dan are able to get there, however, their cousins, Ian and Natalie Kabra, are able to trick them and strand them in the airport.

After that, Alistair Oh offers to assist Amy and Dan and establish an alliance. All things considered, Alistair has money and property in Korea, and also has wisdom and old age.

Amy and Dan do not totally believe in him, but they agree to work together for now. Amy, Dan, and Alastair realize that the clue is hidden in the history of Toyotomi Hideyoshi, an excellent Japanese warrior and son of Thomas Cahill, the man who founded the Tomas branch.

The Holt family, at the same time, are also hot after the clue and manage to snare them into a subway trap. It appears that it is going to be over for the Cahill kids, but Alastair rescues them before they are able to get hit by a train. We get to see the human side of the Holt children as they balk at the prospect of killing Dan and Amy.

Unfortunately, the three of them by mistake enter into the abode of sword-wielding Yakuza, or Japanese warriors. Nellie, their au pair, manages to rescue them, alongside Ian and Natalie Kabra. Amy, Dan, and Alastair reach a decision to form an alliance with Ian and Natalie. They do that in part because of the fact that Amy has kind of a crush on Ian, and Ian is pretending like it’s reciprocal.

The clues point to Korea, and the group of six travel to Alastair’s house. We learn more concerning the Ekaterina branch and also about Bae Oh, Alastair’s uncle and chief of the Ekaterina branch. After Alastair’s dad died, Alastair lived dismal years under the hand of his Bae Oh. On the trip to Korea, however, he learns for the first time that Bae Oh paid someone for Alastair’s father to be killed.

At Alastair’s property, he offers some of his own research with the others. We learn a lot more concerning the clue hunt, specifically that the thirty-nine clues are 39 elements that when combined will make a sort of philosopher’s stone. They then travel to the mountain Pukhansan, and Dan tricks the others regarding the location of the clue.

The ending is an intriguing and dangerous story, in which we learn about the true intentions of Amy and Dan’s counterparts. Will Ian and Natalie swipe the clue, or will Amy and Dan outsmart them once more? More importantly, will Alastair Oh live?

Review

Like I said before, I consider this to be one of the poorest books in the series. While Gordon Korman mentioned the way that he used The Maze of Bones as his bible in composing One False Note, Peter Lerangis obviously did not follow the example. The book is authored in quite a different way from the rest of the series. The other books are authored in a thrilling, detached, and realistic way. This book is considerably more relaxed, the tone is more informal, and it is not close to as much action-packed. Plus, it is sort of hard to comprehend. Because of that, the novel loses some of its educational value and I honest don't remember any of the historical facts, very different from the other books.
Even though a few of my friends who were reading the series at the time that this novel was released told me that they liked the break from the action this book provided, every single one of them stopped reading The 39 Clues after this book. None of my friends who started out this series actually read the fourth addition. Also, books one and two were both number 1 on the bestseller list for quite a while. This novel was on the bestseller for a little while, but didn't hit #1. Not one of the subsequent additions to the series did, either.

That's not to say there aren't good parts to the way Lerangis writes, however. He introduces the idea a possible romance between Ian and Amy that has continued throughout the series to the current books with different boyfriends and hints of crushes. This was in fact the topic most usually talked about among clue hunters during the course of the Cahills vs. Vespers arc, and was for me a valuable addition to The 39 Clues series.

This book has some interesting information regarding the clue hunt that brings the story along, so it’s a necessity for dedicated clue hunters going back through the early books to read it. All in all, though, the writing is not nearly as good as throughout the rest of the series and on its own I would not recommend reading it.

Thanks for reading this review and if you want you can read a review of Swindle by Gordon Korman. You can also check out my site for kids book reviews.

Hideout by Gordon Korman Review

Hideout by Gordon Korman is the 5th and latest adventure in the tremendously well-known Swindle Series. Gordon Korman is one of my favorite authors and a rather accomplished one, possessing over Seventy-five titles to his credit. In fact, the story Swindle was not too long ago turned into a film by Nickelodeon. In Hideout, Korman keeps the Swindle Series rolling with another remarkable adventure. In Swindle, Griffin Bing and his pals confronted a mean guy they nickname “Swindle” who took a baseball card worth $1.2 million from their hands. After unmasking Swindle and forcing him to close down his shop, they also come in possession of his guard dog, Luthor. Luthor is a vicious dog, but Griffin’s pal Savannah is virtually a dog whisperer and becomes close buddies with the pup. In this caper, Palomino is back again, and he wants to get Luthor back. Clearly, Savannah isn’t going to just let Swindle take her dog. At the time of this book Griffin and his friends are away for summer camp, and they have no choice but to organize a very complex series of plans to keep Swindle’s hired henchmen from stealing back Luthor. There is no person better to plan it than Griffin Bing, the “Man with the Plan.” Griffin and his friends are all stationed at three separate summer camps. Swindle sends his goons to go after all 3, and they have to conceal the dog from not only the goons but also the rest of the camp. This book is split up into 3 separate parts or hideouts, each one focused on during the time that the canine is living at their respective camp. It commences with the canine stowing away with Griffin and Savannah to their camp. As soon as their location is known to Swindle, they swap luthor over to Melissa and Logan. Melissa joined the group on account of her terrific computer knowledge, and Logan joined because on account of his good acting skills. Luthor eventually ends up in the hands of Pitch and Ben. Pitch is a fantastic climber, and Ben is the small spaces guy and Griffin’s best friend. Every person in the gang has their particular expertise which enables the six of them to work together as a team. This book is riddled with tons of humor. Although the gang are being pursued by a criminal and his hired henchmen, Hideout is constantly interspersed with the fun personalities of every one of the members of the gang and lots of comedy. The last part of the story, where Swindle and his henchmen go face to face with Griffin and his group, is one of the best parts of the book and is filled with tons of humor. This is quite a well written tale and yet another awesome addition for the Swindle Series. It's no doubt hard to keep coming up with exciting stand-alone novels when you reach the fifth addition in a series with the same characters. Korman is, amazingly, up to the challenge. To be honest, however, I’m not all that excited for the next tale in the series, Jackpot. If I was in Korman's shoes, I would conclude this series at this point, due to the fact that I feel that the series is getting to be kind of long in the tooth. How many times can you get stoked reading about the exact same group of kids having a variation of basically the same adventure? Nevertheless, that fact doesn't take away from the strength of this story. I would highly recommend for preteens (around the ages of 9 to 12) to read it. Take a look at the excellent reviews of this book on Amazon. There is literally not one individual who says they or their child did not like the book. Korman’s books are pretty much guaranteed to be kid pleasers, and Hideout is not an exception. Before you read Hideout, however, I’d suggest to read the original Swindle. Though it’s not needed to comprehend and appreciate the story, it does help a lot to have an understanding of the past adventures. Plus, Swindle is a great story. By and large, there is not really very much criticism I can give Hideout. For the majority of his career, Gordon Korman wrote comedy books. It wasn't until the late 90's that he began to write action/adventure. I feel as though now he’s mastered merging these two styles together to create a suspenseful but also hilarious book. This is classic Gordon Korman at his greatest. Thank you very much for checking out this review and if you'd like you can check out the book Animal Farm by George Orwell or my website featuring kids book reviews.