Review: The Challenger

The Challenger by Taran Matharu
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Taran Matharu's back with the second book of his second trilogy - well, that's a bit misleading since Summoner has a full-length prequel and all, and who knows if he'll follow up this series with a prequel novel as well? For now, though, we're continuing to explore, through Cade's eyes, the mysterious world on which he and his schoolmates, and a few 80s girls, and a few Roman legionnaires, find themselves stuck, now facing some major new threats - most memorable among them, Caesarion, son of Julius Caesar and Cleopatra, who of course rules this world with a lot of the ancient bread-and-circuses, gladiator-fighting playbook. (And he's managed to pick up English pretty quickly in the space of only a few years too, so there's that.) Though this one does kinda feel like a case of Middle Book Syndrome, Matharu's singular gift for action propels the book at an unstoppable pace as always, and even more than any book since his debut in The Novice, the action simply doesn't stop until the very last page, when another weapons-grade cliffhanger slams Cade and the reader full force. Luckily, we've already got the third book in the series lined up for a 2021 release - and let's just say I'm glad I didn't look at the summary of that one on GR before finishing this one first!

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