InterWorld

July 30, 2007
This parallel universe adventure would surely have been more exciting when its authors first conceived it in 1995; today it feels somewhat like a gee-whiz amalgam of The Matrix
, comic book multiverses and Ender’s Game
. High-schooler Joey Harker has a terrible sense of direction; during a field trip he gets lost and ends up in a world where the McDonald’s arches are green plaid, his mother doesn’t recognize him and everything has been altered to varying degrees. He is rescued by a mysterious man named Jay (who looks like an older version of Joey) and learns that he has “Walked” between two of millions of coexisting worlds, landing in one where he drowned a year earlier. Joey finds himself the target of two warring peoples—one technology-driven, the other possessing mystical abilities—who capture Walkers like himself to harness their power. The action takes Joey to an academy at InterWorld, where hundreds of other kids who resemble him (and who all have the initials J.H.) train to “defend and protect the Altiverse from those who would harm it or bend it to their will.” Gaiman devotees, used to headier stuff, may be disappointed. Ages 10-up.

November 1, 2007
Gr 8 Up-At 16, Joey Harker has just realized that he can literally walk into alternate realities. He quickly discovers that versions of himself from other worlds can also live on a secret base known as InterWorld. From here, an army of Joeys, of all different ages and characteristics, battle two evil groups bent on ruling all the earths in the Altiverse. The HEX uses magic, the Binary relies on science, while the Joeys fight to maintain the naturally occurring balance of these forces. These dueling factions make for a unique representation of good and evil, and the book's setting is equally imaginative. The "In-Between," a colorful, chaotic realm where Picassoesque objects morph in and out of existence, is described with vivid graphic imagery. The explanations of the In-Between and other dimensions gradually make sense to readers, as they do to Joey, who is at first realistically skeptical. Packed with harrowing chase scenes through these fascinating realms, the plot moves quickly from the initial explanations to Joey's training on InterWorld, to his climactic confrontation with Lord Dogknife, the grotesque leader of the HEX. With his sarcastic sense of humor and superhuman abilities, Joey is a hero whom teens, even reluctant readers, will cheer for."Emily Rodriguez, Alachua County Library District, Gainesville, FL"

Copyright 2007 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

September 1, 2007
A lad discovers that he can walk between alternate Earthsand is swept up in a war between them in this fast-paced, compulsively readable tale. Joey gets lost in his own house, but when he steps into a patch of fog and finds himself in a world where he died, a trillion Earths lie open to himarranged in a vast arc, with an empire of science-based planes at one end and a realm where magic rules at the other. Recruited into an army of anything-but-identical Joeys gathered from many of these worlds and charged with maintaining the balance of power, Joey picks up companions both human and non as he travels the multidimensional In Between that links the sprawling Altiverse. In this first of what could and should be many episodes, Joey finisheshis basic training by doing battle with melodramatically evil magic workers Lord Dogknife and Lady Indigo. Vivid, well-imagined settings and characterscompensate for weak links in the internal logic of thisrousing sf/fantasy hybrid.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2007, American Library Association.)