"Funny fiction for kids who crave crazy character-driven capers and breakneck speed from their fantasy reads."
The Thief of Time, second book in Sam Copeland’s Alex Vs Axel series, sees Alex and Axel, the accidental place-swapping heroes, embark on a race-against-time quest to save Earth from the effects of time being frozen. Fast-paced and funny, it’s a blast of fresh fantastical air, albeit air with a whiff of something decidedly dangerous.
The stage is suspensefully set in the Prologue when a “man who had once been dead raised his arms and whispered ancient words”. Words that summon Time-Eaters to devour planet Earth in order for the once-dead man to obtain immortality. So far, so high-stakes, ahead of the action switching to Alex in our own world. Freshly returned from a school trip to the Royal Observatory in Greenwich, he and his mates are stunned to hear a newsreader announce that Britain has lost contact with every country in the world, just as two of his friends are frozen. A short time later, Axel appears in Alex’s bedroom and the duo head through the portal to Aërth to try to fix this troubling situation.
After being greeted by Wulford the Wise, “a wizard — but totally buff”, as Alex is minded to describe him, the boys embark on a twisting quest to save Earth in a mere seven days, with support from Mr Sunshine the cat (an expert in the art of sneaking) and Finagle the gnome. As the crew are forced to navigate the Maze of Madness, face the Infernal Dungeons, and confront many unimaginably monstrous creatures and situations, The Thief of Time amounts to an electrifying fantasy adventure that’s as filled with friendship as it is with fear-factor thrills.
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