Books: Ronan Boyle and the Swamp of Certain Death By Thomas Lennon (2020)

 

"Ronan Boyle may be the youngest and lowliest recruit to the secret Garda, but he’s determined to save his captain from the harpy that dragged her into Tir Na Nog at the end of book one. He may not be the strongest, or the smartest, or the best looking, or the most dexterous . . . so why was he picked for this mission? He’s not entirely sure. But he may be the captain’s only hope—if he can escape man-eating elves, escape a job in a unicorn’s lounge act, and find the captain before she’s sacrificed to a spooky cult trying to resurrect its leader. Eventually Ronan must battle the scariest monster of all: impostor syndrome."

 

While a slightly slower-paced tale than the first book, I still enjoyed this adventure with Ronan Boyle. Much like the first book, there is a mix of action and humor (there is plenty of fart jokes and other pubescent humor to amuse middle-school boys), but Ronan Boyle and the Swamp of Certain Death emphatically draws more heavily from the Harry Potter playbook than the first book –which can be distracting. The footnotes were great and some of Lennon’s other humor is seemly directed at adults (and I’m not sure many middle school boys and girls know who Judi Dench is) who are either reading it on their own or to their kids which was another distracting thing.

 

Again, actor Thomas Lennon borrows many themes from Rowling, while trying to write in the style of Douglas Adams, Terry Pratchett, and even Neil Gaiman. He succeeds most of time here, as his characters do grow –especially Ronan. I do think boys will enjoy this series more than girls, even though it contains many strong female characters (Log is wonderful creation). Who knows, really?

 

I assume there will be at least one more book, though we get less of a set-up than the first book.