Wednesday, June 13, 2007

The Next Harry Potter?

Tunnels, by Roderick Gordon and Brian Williams There was an article front and center on Yahoo! yesterday, promoting a book that could be "the next Harry Potter"! The book was Tunnels, by Roderick Gordon and Brian Williams, and it was discovered by Barry Cunningham of Chicken House books, who visited the library last year. Mr. Cunningham said, "I knew from page one that Harry Potter was magic. Reading Tunnels gave me the same thrill. ... Tunnels has it all: a boy archaeologist, merciless villains, a lost world and an extraordinary journey to the centre of the earth."

Some of our Young Critics' Club members actually got to read advance copies of Tunnels earlier this year. So--- Young Critics! What did you think of Tunnels? Does it live up to the hype? Will it be the next Harry Potter? Comment on this post with your thoughts!

4 comments:

Kate said...

The tunnels that the authors wrote about in TUNNELS were inspired by the actual Williamson Tunnels, a mysterious labyrinth of tunnels built under Liverpool, England in the 1800s. See pictures and read more about them:
http://www.williamsontunnels.co.uk/view.php?page=about
Mrs Mac

Anonymous said...

Tunnels the next harry potter? I dont think so. I started his book, and immediately was put off. The book seemed like it could go places, but it wasn't that type of harry potter fantasy we love so much. Many people including myself, enjoy the main character to have the powers. Our main character either doesnt have powers, or recieves them later. This put out me off, as i believe a great part of any fantasy novel is watching the character grow stronger, and beat up everyone else. The setting, was not exiting for me either, and looked as though it would only get worse. The mood of the book, seemed a little dark, and even with those serious adventure type novels we all like to laugh a bit. The monsters as described, were not very interesting. However, I should add that I have not completed this book, and am not sure if any of the things I mentioned changed throught the storyline. Worth a try, but no harry potter.

Anonymous said...

thank you william...someone in the publishing industry must be on drugs. I'll admit, "Tunnels" is a moderately paced, decent read. But the plot wanes in the second half of the book and there is little character depth at all, making the story unconvincing and boring....
One thing that makes HP so great is that no matter how crazy or wild the adventure plot gets, the character/emotional depth rises or drops with it. Tunnes, unfortunately, doesn't even come close. Nice cover, though.

Anonymous said...

I admit tunnels was an interesting read, but it was definitely not Harry Potter calibur. Still, even though the first half did not contain much of a plot, the second half was quite interesting. But in the end, HP books always leaves you wanting more, while the tunnels' ending was quite predictable. So I do agree with Will...Tunnels is not the next Harry Potter