The Chaos Code

October 29, 2007
Let’s Find Treasure,” the catchphrase from Richards’s (The Death Collector
) mystery/thriller, seems emblematic of this novel’s excited tone. Like Grimpow
(reviewed above), this story, too, utilizes numerous conventions à la Dan Brown’s The
Da Vinci Code
—cryptic messages, coded clues, historical arcane societies, etc.—but here these feel somewhat derivative. The storyline revolves around 15-year-old Matt Stribling who, in search of his missing archeologist father, becomes entangled in a globe-hopping quest. The goal: to find an ancient treasure that, if unearthed by the wrong people, could potentially destroy the world. Initially, Stribling and two allies—millionaire Julius Venture and his precocious daughter Robin—set out to find the lost treasure of the Knights of St. John of Jerusalem, a legendary cache of scrolls and relics that supposedly holds the “knowledge held secret by the ancients.” But as the search takes the group from the jungles of Brazil to a remote Scandinavian island, the scope of the mysterious “knowledge” expands to include the lost continent of Atlantis, elemental magic and quantum entanglement. The action never stops, but the glut of two-dimensional characters and more than a few highly implausible exploits (Matt figures out a computer’s complex password after just a few tries) weaken the suspense. Ages 12-up.

October 15, 2007
Sent to his fathers when his mother has to leave on a business trip, 15-year-old Matt is not totally surprised to discover his disorganized dad gone. But soon the mystery thickens, and when Matt arrives at his aunts (as directed by a cryptic message), he finds himself in the midst of a sprawling scenario that includes a golem, ancient civilizations, secrets of a Knights Templar-like organization, and a quest that hops across continents and millennia. This British import cant be read too closely (its filled with all sorts of logical questions that have no answers), and sometimes the everything-but-the-kitchen-sink mix of events is as confusing as it is exciting. But the adventure is nonstop, and the intriguing combination of computers and long-forgotten knowledge will have readers turning pages to find out how it all comes out. YAs who liked Dan Browns Da Vinci Code (2003) may like this.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2007, American Library Association.)