Triskellion by Will Peterson
May. 30th, 2009 12:11 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
quippeThe Blurb On The Back:
Rachel and Adam are sent from their New York home to stay with their grandmother, following their parents’ bitter divorce. But the quiet English village where their mother was born is a sinister and unsettling place. Is there a genuinely dark heart beating beneath the thatched roofs of the picturesque village of Triskellion?
Against a brooding background of very real danger, the two young outsiders follow an incredible trail on an archaeological adventure with a startling paranormal twist. In a community that has existed in the same place for centuries, many terrible secrets lay hidden, and the villagers of Triskellion have a great deal to protect ...
Rachel and Adam are American twins who go to live in the sleepy English village of Triskellion with their grandmother while their parents go through a bitter divorce. There they meet Gabriel, a mysterious boy with strange powers, who involves them in a search for three blades that go to make up a triskellion. Their search draws them into conflict with the villagers including Hilary Wing, a local man who leads the sinister green men and who views the triskellion as his birthright and a television archaeological team who want to dig up a local barrow marked by a triskellion symbol.
This novel tries to be a bit of everything – part paranormal story, part action adventure, part archaeological and ancient lesson – but doesn’t do justice to its aims. The introduction of the twins’ telepathy powers is sudden and used too conveniently. Gabriel with his own powers should be more interesting than he is, but his motives are never questioned and his apparent role as guiding the twins towards the fulfilment of a prophecy that is never really explained is frustrating. The villains should stand out more than they do. Hilary never really rises above the petulant and the arrogant and self-serving TV archaeologist Chris Dalton too buffoonish to be much of a threat.
Peterson does well in portraying the sinister underbelly of the village early on, particularly its hostility to the twins but never seems to capitalise it, mainly because he portrays political lines that are never fully developed. There are some nicely gruesome deaths, notably one involving a character being stung to death by bees but they don’t involve characters who the reader cares about one way or another. Bizarrely it isn’t until over half way through the book that it becomes clear what the triskellion actually is – Peterson emphasises its shape but not what it is.
There’s a prologue for the second in the trilogy at the end of this book which points at more sinister goings on to come but without interesting central characters to care about it’s difficult to see why anyone would want to read on. It’s an okay read and the pace is well maintained, but the truth is that there are better paranormal adventures out there that are more exciting to read and with central characters who face dilemmas that the reader can care about.
The Verdict:
This is competently written and Peterson keeps the story ticking along but there’s an oddly superficial feel to it and for me the central characters weren’t drawn sufficiently well for me to root for them or care about their dilemmas. I’m not sure if there’s enough for me to read on.
Rachel and Adam are sent from their New York home to stay with their grandmother, following their parents’ bitter divorce. But the quiet English village where their mother was born is a sinister and unsettling place. Is there a genuinely dark heart beating beneath the thatched roofs of the picturesque village of Triskellion?
Against a brooding background of very real danger, the two young outsiders follow an incredible trail on an archaeological adventure with a startling paranormal twist. In a community that has existed in the same place for centuries, many terrible secrets lay hidden, and the villagers of Triskellion have a great deal to protect ...
Rachel and Adam are American twins who go to live in the sleepy English village of Triskellion with their grandmother while their parents go through a bitter divorce. There they meet Gabriel, a mysterious boy with strange powers, who involves them in a search for three blades that go to make up a triskellion. Their search draws them into conflict with the villagers including Hilary Wing, a local man who leads the sinister green men and who views the triskellion as his birthright and a television archaeological team who want to dig up a local barrow marked by a triskellion symbol.
This novel tries to be a bit of everything – part paranormal story, part action adventure, part archaeological and ancient lesson – but doesn’t do justice to its aims. The introduction of the twins’ telepathy powers is sudden and used too conveniently. Gabriel with his own powers should be more interesting than he is, but his motives are never questioned and his apparent role as guiding the twins towards the fulfilment of a prophecy that is never really explained is frustrating. The villains should stand out more than they do. Hilary never really rises above the petulant and the arrogant and self-serving TV archaeologist Chris Dalton too buffoonish to be much of a threat.
Peterson does well in portraying the sinister underbelly of the village early on, particularly its hostility to the twins but never seems to capitalise it, mainly because he portrays political lines that are never fully developed. There are some nicely gruesome deaths, notably one involving a character being stung to death by bees but they don’t involve characters who the reader cares about one way or another. Bizarrely it isn’t until over half way through the book that it becomes clear what the triskellion actually is – Peterson emphasises its shape but not what it is.
There’s a prologue for the second in the trilogy at the end of this book which points at more sinister goings on to come but without interesting central characters to care about it’s difficult to see why anyone would want to read on. It’s an okay read and the pace is well maintained, but the truth is that there are better paranormal adventures out there that are more exciting to read and with central characters who face dilemmas that the reader can care about.
The Verdict:
This is competently written and Peterson keeps the story ticking along but there’s an oddly superficial feel to it and for me the central characters weren’t drawn sufficiently well for me to root for them or care about their dilemmas. I’m not sure if there’s enough for me to read on.
