Spider Riders: Book Two: Quest of the Earthen - Softcover

Anasti, Tedd; Cameron-Anasti, Peggy; Sullivan, Stephen D.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1557046816 ISBN 13: 9781557046819

Publisher: Newmarket, 2006

Synopsis

The second book in an exciting new fantasy series for 9-12-year-olds set in the world of Arachnia, located in the center of the earth's core, featuring a young hero and his 10-foot-tall battle spider—the basis for an action-adventure animé television series to launch in Fall 2006.

Hunter Steele never gives up—not when he was living on the surface of the earth and not now that he's fallen into the earth's core, into the realm of the Turandot, a human race locked in never-ending battle with the Insectors, a giant insect-type race. With his 10-foot-tall battle spider, Shadow the Untamed, Hunter has already proved himself worthy of joining the elite force known as the Spider Riders. Their mission: to restore the stolen shards of the Oracle, source of their society's power and protection.
BR>But five of the shards are still in the possession of Mantid, a cruel and merciless mastermind. Far from the safety of their plateau city, the Spider Riders must defeat Mantid's allies—Fungus Brain, whose powers of telepathy are greater than their own, and Aqune, a traitorous former Spider Rider who has created her own fearsome force of Mecha-Spiders. Only then can Hunter Steele undertake the final, most dangerous mission alone—to penetrate the heart of Mantid's mighty fortress and prove himself a full-fledged Spider Rider.

The Spider Riders book series is the basis of a children's action-adventure animé TV series currently in production and scheduled to launch in Fall 2006. Produced by Cookie Jar Entertainment, Inc., a leading family entertainment company with properties ranging from Arthur to Caillou and The Doodlebops to Are You Afraid of the Dark? and Dark Oracle, Spider Riders is destined to become as popular as Yu-Gi-Oh! and its predecessors Pokémon and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.

About this title

About the Author

Tedd Anasti and Patsy Cameron-Anasti have written and produced over 500 half-hour episodes of such children's TV hits as Disney's Timon and Pumbaa, Duck Tales, Disney's The Little Mermaid; the Free Willy TV series; and the Emmy Award-winning Tim Burton's Beetlejuice. Married with two children, they were inspired by their son's passion for spiders to write Spider Riders. Stephen D. Sullivan is the author of the junior movie tie-in novels Thunderbirds and Fantastic Four. He has also worked on several popular properties, including Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Dungeons & Dragons, The Simpsons, Speed Racer, Dragonlance, and many more.

Reviews

Grade 4-6–Hunter Steele, the protagonist introduced in Spider Riders: The Shards of the Oracle (Newmarket, 2005), is still in the center of the earth in the city of Arachnia and has joined the Spider Riders, but still must prove that he is truly one of them. With his battle spider named Shadow, he goes on a quest that will be familiar to anyone with even a passing acquaintance with fantasy tropes. Along with the other riders, he must recover five shards of the Oracle, a vague source of power, from the evil Mantid, a stock giant insect villain with visions of world domination, and his minions, known as Insectors. Mantid has the support of a large blob of pale, pulsating gelatinous substance that communicates telepathically and is known as Fungus Brain. It should be clear at this point how derivative this plot is, with echoes of Garth Nix's far superior The Keys to the Kingdom series and Suzanne Collins's The Underland Chronicles (both Scholastic), all of which are better choices. And if overly familiar plot elements weren't enough, this volume doesn't stand alone. The writing is pedestrian, but the dialogue and the glib tone will be familiar to children raised on Saturday morning cartoon fare. In fact, the TV series based on this series is scheduled for broadcast this fall and will be in the popular Japanese anime style, so limited purchase of this title may be appropriate to anticipate popular demand.–Tim Wadham, Maricopa County Library District, Phoenix, AZ
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Edition details

• Publisher: Newmarket
• Publication date: 2006
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1557046816
• ISBN 13: 9781557046819
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 224