The Merlin Effect

September 12, 1994
Blending Arthurian legend and modern oceanography, Barron's (Heartlight; The Ancient One) lively tale boasts finely developed characters as well as fast-moving adventure. Thirteen-year-old Kate Gordon is assisting her father, an English-history professor, in his search for a sunken Spanish galleon off the Baja peninsula, when she rescues a whale that has gotten tangled in the expedition's equipment. That event propels the group into a quest for Merlin's legendary horn of power, hidden in the galleon, which in turn is surrounded by a huge whirlpool. After plunging into the whirlpool, Kate and her companions engage in an epic battle with Merlin's mortal enemy Nimue and her cadre of sea demons, who want to use the horn to extend their evil domain. Barron achieves a solid balance of mythology, environmental issues and scientific research procedures. The monsters are appropriately scary and malevolent, while the relationships among Kate, her father and the other members of the expedition are well drawn and touching. Ages 10-14.

September 15, 1994
While pursuing rumors of a lost Spanish galleon and a mysterious-possibly magical-drinking horn connected with Arthurian lore, a historian and his teenage daughter are drawn into an undersea world where they witness the final confrontation between a pair of legendary enemies. The author of The Ancient One (Putnam, 1992) blends a wealth of sea lore with ancient myth and fast-paced adventure suitable for adult and YA fantasy lovers.

November 1, 1994
Gr 6-8-Singing whales, a sunken Spanish galleon, genetics, and Arthurian characters are all jumbled together in this complex fantasy. Kate Gordon, 13, whose previous adventures (Heartlight [1990] and The Ancient One [1992, both Philomel]) involved her in both time and space travel, here accompanies her historian father to the coast of Baja, California, where he hopes to discover one of Merlin's legendary lost treasures. The quest leads Kate to the center of a whirlpool, to the place beyond it, and in the end results in her saving the lives of her father and his coworkers. While Barron's writing style is neither as smooth nor his characters as well developed as those found in novels by Lloyd Alexander, Ursula LeGuin, or Madeleine L'Engle, the plot moves swiftly and background information is generally well integrated into the story. Fans of adventure films, particularly Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, will enjoy the intriguing mixture of contemporary life, historical detail, science, myth, and magic. While this title can be read independently, it will likely appeal most to readers already familiar with Barron's previous books. Fantasy buffs searching for fleshed-out characterizations, strong heroines, and a touch of humor would do well to check out titles by Tamora Pierce and Patricia Wrede, in addition to the classic works by the authors mentioned above.-Lisa Dennis, The Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh

November 1, 1994
Gr. 6-9. If 13-year-old Kate Gordon is the same 13-year-old Kate who is the protagonist in "Heartlight" (1990) and "The Ancient One" (1992), she is one busy teen, confronting and dispatching evil everywhere. In this companion to the other novels, she's at a remote lagoon in Baja California, where her father, one of the world's leading scholars on the legend of King Arthur, is searching for the lost Spanish galleon "Resurrecc!ion" because research has led him to believe that the Horn of Merlin is aboard the ship. What ensues is a fast-paced adventure tale, both above and below the water, in which the ship turns out to be at the bottom of a mysterious whirlpool, and Kate and her dad become embroiled in the centuries-old struggle between the evil enchantress Nimue and the wizard Merlin for possession of the horn and its powers of immortality. Though characterizations lack dimension and the plot occasionally is too incredible, the story is steeped in Arthurian legend, which is the real draw here. ((Reviewed November 1, 1994))(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 1994, American Library Association.)