Royce Buckingham
Autor/a de Demonkeeper
Sobre l'autor
Born in 1966 in Richland, Washington, growing up Royce was fascinated by fantastic tales such as 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, The Phantom Tollbooth, The Hobbit, Conan the Barbarian and anything Stephen King. Royce attended Whitman College in Walla Walla, Washington where he majored in English mostra'n més literature and in his junior year he studied English in England. He had begun creative writing by this time but also pursued a "real" career in law by attending the University of Oregon School of Law. He is a prosecutor with the Whatcom County Prosecutor's Office in Bellingham, Washington. Royce sold his first novel, Demonkeeper, to Putnam in 2005 and the award winning screenplay to 20th Century Fox. Royce went onto write Demoneater, Demonocity, Goblins: An UnderEarth Adventure, and The Dead Boys. His books have become international best sellers. (Bowker Author Biography) mostra'n menys
Sèrie
Obres de Royce Buckingham
the deed 1 exemplars
Clansman: Invoking the Darkness (Mapper #1) 1 exemplars
Terminals, The 1 exemplars
Démons 2 1 exemplars
Etiquetat
Coneixement comú
- Nom oficial
- Buckingham, Royce Scott
- Data de naixement
- 1966
- Gènere
- male
- Nacionalitat
- USA
- Lloc de naixement
- Richlang, Washington, USA
- Llocs de residència
- Bellingham, Washington, USA
- Educació
- Jura-Studium
- Professions
- Staatsanwalt
Membres
Ressenyes
Llistes
Premis
Potser també t'agrada
Autors associats
Estadístiques
- Obres
- 20
- Membres
- 493
- Popularitat
- #50,127
- Valoració
- 3.5
- Ressenyes
- 29
- ISBN
- 47
- Llengües
- 5
- Preferit
- 1
Twelve-year-old Teddy’s nurse mother moves him to Richland a month before the new school year begins, then pushes him outdoors to find new friends. Teddy is a smart, likeable, shy, and brave protagonist, and down by the river he meets Albert, dressed in old-fashioned bell-bottom jeans. Albert warns Teddy about the local bullies, led by a kid named Henry, and hints at a greater danger, but before he can share more, the bullies appear. Albert slips into the river to escape, leaving a bewildered Teddy to deal with Henry on his own. Teddy meets other boys around town, all of whom talk and behave—then disappear—in odd ways. Just as odd and even more intriguing is an enormous sycamore tree growing in the yard of an abandoned house next door. Fairly quickly, Teddy figures out the tree, the Hanford Site, and the mysterious boys are connected and that the tree, which scratches at Teddy's window with long, grasping branches, seems determined to lure Teddy closer. When the tree takes drastic, dangerous action, Teddy realizes it will stop at nothing to bring him under its control, and he learns that it knows—and will use—Teddy’s deepest fears to achieve its goal. There’s a wonderful scene in which a black widow spider threatens Teddy; our hero’s decisive action made me squirm, and undoubtedly it will please everyone who reads it.
Buckingham adapts the villainous tree motif by adding ecological terror in the form of the Hanford Site, a nice touch by the author, a Richland, WA, native. The Dead Boys, of course, isn’t unique in using a tree as villain: Apple trees make Dorothy Gale’s life briefly miserable in The Wizard of Oz; hundreds of kites were lost to one greedy tree, courtesy of Charlie Brown and Charles Schulz; and Buckingham’s giant sycamore bears a strong resemblance to a gnarled tree that loomed outside the home of the hapless Freeling family in Poltergeist.
The story benefits from fast pacing and action that doesn’t encourage reflection, an asset in a story that, judged by the most lenient standards, fails just about every logic test. Why, for example, does the tree only crave 12-year-old boys? Engaging as each boy proves—and Buckingham does deft, quick characterizations of each—wouldn’t the boundless energy of 5- or 6-year-olds provide enough power for entire forests? What does the tree have against girls? Adults? Or dogs and cats, for that matter? Equally puzzling is why the police don’t seem to realize that over the decades there’s been a systematic series of disappearances among the 12-year-old boy population; has the tree cast some form of glamor over the entire town? The climax, in which Teddy negotiates the dim, dusty world of the sycamore, proved so visually confusing I gave up trying to make logical sense of it and let myself succumb to a surreal vision—it worked for me.
When I closed the book, I wondered how the boys Teddy saved would cope with their new lives, devoid of family and many familiar landmarks; and I liked Dead Boys even more for having provoked such questions. Highly recommended.… (més)