The Calling

August 4, 2014
Frey and Johnson-Shelton open an ambitious trilogy, designed to play out over multiple media platforms, including mobile games. Ostensibly, it’s about 12 teenage Players, each representing a different bloodline from which all humanity is descended, who have been called together by the arrival of a meteor that signals Endgame—the point at which they must find three keys that will allow only one line to survive an apocalyptic event. As they outwit and outfight one another, they solve riddles and clues designed to help them succeed in their tasks. In addition, readers who solve the enclosed puzzles can compete to locate a (real-life) hidden treasure of gold coins. The premise is engaging, in a Hunger Games–meets–National Treasure sort of way, and the diverse global cast is welcome, but the choppy, disjointed prose (“Nothing happens. The stars are out. They stare. Wait”) quickly wears thin. The narrative shifts frequently among the overlarge cast, and it’s too soon to tell what’s signal and what’s noise in the overabundance of details. Ages 14–up. Agent: Eric Simonoff and Simon Trewin, William Morris Endeavor; David Krintzman, Morris Yorn.