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.