Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Reinvigorating the Action/Adventure Story, 25 Jan 2008
Book one of the Joshua Files, by M. G. Harris, is one of those books that leaps out at the reader and refuses to let go.
Opening in a similar way to Anthony Horrowitz's Stormbreaker, Invisible City very quickly sets out upon its own quest for truth, assuring the reader of its own credentials. Both heroes, Stormbreaker's Alex Ryder and Invisible City's Joshua Garcia, have lost someone important to them, a loss that sparks the ensuing adventure, and in those first few paragraphs it all seems fairly rudimentary. But I hadn't expected MG Harris to draw me so close to Joshua's plight - his anxieties, questions that are left unanswered, a home life in tatters and the world continuing to turn. And as MG Harris slowly builds the story around Joshua's first investigations into the death of his father, I began to understand how the nature of his loss, and the loss felt by his mother, had settled upon them both in a way that no other children's-adventure novelist in MG Harris's contemporaries has done. It is the emotion that gives Invisible City its power and makes it stand out as an action adventure boys will love.
Invisible City is to Stormbreaker what the Bourne films are to Bond. There is depth to the character of Joshua, and a realism (alien/futuristic technologies aside) that outstrips rival writers - Joshua and his friends stand to lose everything at every turn, and the reader knows it - and no overbearance or reliance upon special skillsets or super-spy technologies. In fact there is a brilliant moment where Joshua's mission starts to turn towards Bondesque infiltration and MG Harris spectacularly redirects the story in another direction, ruining any use Joshua's new tools may have had, ramping up the tension and ultimately delivering the pay off of believability.
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5 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Jason Bourne, eat your heart out!, 4 Feb 2008
The comparison of Joshua Garcia's quest for the Ix Codex in "Invisible City" with the harebrain antics of Jason Bourne is invidious. Joshua is a character you can really identify with. The storyline twists and soars with every imaginative episode, landing Joshua in new and unpredicted danger.
We're drawn into the mysterious life of the Maya people, their ancient wisdom and the `long count' calendar that predicts doom for the Earth in December 2012. This knowledge is codified in four books, one of which, the `Ix Codex', is missing. Something unknown links Joshua and his father to its fate. Joshua heads to Mexico to find the cause of his father's death and is drawn inexorably into a chase where he is both hunter and hunted, pursued by undercover agents, people desperate enough to kill to find the Ix secret.
The moral undercurrent of this fable is undoubtedly the coming of age of 13-year old Joshua. He searches for the Ix Codex but also for the meaning of his life and the dream that haunts him. His aching struggles with unfamiliar feelings are portrayed in a manner that gives the reader insight into the inner turmoil of a boy undergoing the transition towards adulthood. Joshua yearns to prove his father's death was no accident, and then to complete his appointed task. He shows constant loyalty towards his friends and mother - his thoughts expressed through postings to his blog. Ultimately, he is driven by his passions, loyalties and grief to take on every challenge he faces.
Whilst the book is ostensibly aimed at teenage readers, I found it captivating, with scenes and emotions described in almost sensory detail. The central player is well-characterised, deeply drawn and utterly believable. I was there with every rake and plunge of this roller-coaster adventure.
I can't wait for the next book in "the Joshua Files" - when's it being published?
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3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Blinding! (and I don't just mean the cover), 1 Mar 2008
The glowing orange slipcover on 'Invisible City' promises something special - and delivers in spades. This is a simply brilliant modern thriller-with-a-brain which starts strongly and then absolutely soars. Josh Garcia's life turns upside down when his archaeologist father mysteriously dies in Mexico, sending him in pursuit of the fabled Ix Codex, a mythical Mayan text which it is death to touch.
All the classic ingredients are here: a coded letter, torn in half, containing a prophecy; a sinister organisation in pursuit; stakes that get raised from the mundane (proving his father wasn't unfaithful to his mum) to the epic (potentially saving the world). But alongside the Bondesque car chases and exotic locations, there's genuine heart. Josh is challenged not only by the usual gun-waving types but also by heartbreaking personal loss, and the sensitive way his emotional state is handled - without ever detracting from the pace - is what makes this such a memorable rollercoaster to ride.
If your kids like Horowitz and Higson, prepare for them to have a new hero! Just don't borrow their copy thinking you'll be able to just hand it back whenever they like: anyone who'd interrupted me reading the last 100 pages would've lost a limb or two...
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