Forbidden Mountain

By: Brandon Mull

Narrated by: George Newbern

CHOOSE YOUR GUARDIAN. CHOOSE YOUR DESTINY.

From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of the Fablehaven and Beyonders series comes an epic new fantasy set in a world where every child bonds with a spiritual guide—some promising greatness and glory, while others, destruction and death.

Every Anoran child dreams of the day they will enter the sacred bonding hut and match with a guardian—a spiritual guide who grants magically enhanced abilities. A lucky few will bond with Advocates, who promise greatness and glory. Others will be tempted by forbidden offers from the Accursed—dangerous spirits who bring nothing but destruction and a penalty of death to any Anoran who chooses them. But when Mako discovers that the worst of these agents of chaos has returned to spread an ancient evil through the empire, he faces an unthinkable choice: Will he bond with one of the Accursed to gain the power to stop another?

Halfway across the empire, Arden has no guardian and no prospects of adventure…until she infiltrates an underground criminal network to find her missing friend. Relying on her knack for sensing the truth through even the smoothest lies, Arden finds herself at the center of a sinister conspiracy that runs much deeper than she ever imagined.

Soon Mako’s and Arden’s fates collide, and together they must face bandit armies, dark secrets, and untold dangers to fight an enemy who could destroy all they’ve ever known.

Critic reviews

★ "[A] thrilling combination of adventure, fantasy, and intrigue....A great choice for kids who love chunky books that allow them to immerse themselves in an imagined world." —Booklist, starred review

"An enticing adventure....Layered conflicts and worldbuilding provide a solid foundation, and a cliff-hanger ending will leave readers clamoring for the sequel." —Publishers Weekly

Nostalgic

Fablehaven was the first book I read, and since then I have loved Brandons other books. This one is no exception. It is paced well, and the stories are well made. Can't wait for the next one

Give me more!

Fun carectors and a good story. Pacing and motivations are well executed looking forward to seeing where the story goes.

Slow But Intriguing

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Content Rating:
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Equivalent to PG-13 / T for moderate violence, frequent death, and references to smoking and alcohol. There is no sexual content.

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Preamble
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Brandon Mull is my favorite author and this release was eagerly anticipated for me, however, I fear my hype may have been too high. This book is very different from Brandon’s other work and is a bit jarring for a long-time fan like me. It's MUCH grittier than even beyonders, which previously was his darkest series.

The book is also slower in pace compared to books like Sky Raiders or A World Without Heroes. Even Fablehaven intrigued me out the gate more because it had such a strong concept. It feels like this book is a fire slowly coming to a burn, struggling at times, but when it finally burns, it blazes!

I am hopeful for this series. Brandon has stated in his acknowledgements that this book is more ambitious than previous projects and that he's had it planned in various stages for about 10 years. He already has plans for the next 2 books and who knows what else!

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Review
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As I mentioned, this book is slow. No kids from Earth this time, it's a completely original setting. The book takes place from the POV of Mako and Arden. The main plot involves Mako bonding with the accursed spirit Narrix. The side plot involves Arden getting neck-deep into trouble with criminals in an underground criminal network

Mako meets Narrix near the end of chapter 15. It takes over 5 hours to get to that point. Mako meets Arden and the story collides in chapter 26, over 10 hours in. Slow paces aren't necessarily bad, but between that, the grittier setting, and the split perspectives, it's very different for brandon mull.

The main hook of the book is the guardians. Mako meets several of them and there was a lot of thought put into the spiritual aspect of them, which I believe Brandon has drawn from various aspects of his own life. He manages to describe the magic system in a way that makes sense and that you can connect to. It makes the reader want their own guardian to bond with (shout out to my man Panzel.)

I initially struggled to connect with Arden, and overall I feel like characterization is a bit weaker in this book. The main characters feel less distinct compared to some of Brandon's other works.

The story improves significantly when mako and arden meet. It takes a while to get to that point, but you see all the different threads come together and the bombastic ending leaves you curious for what's to come.

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Performance
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George Newbern did a good job with the performance. I do feel like the characters could have been slightly more distinct, but it wasn't a major issue. His delivery wasn't distracting or anything and he put a lot of emotion into the roll! I have no major complaints.

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Final Thoughts
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I'm curious to see where this goes. Brandon Mull has left several mysteries unsolved between Beyonders and especially 5 Kingdoms and I'll be curious to see if this book bridges them, especially with what it describes about the criminal organizations that Arden stumbles into.

Would I recommend this book? Absolutely, but go in with the expectations that it'll be slower and comparatively different to Brandon Mull’s other works.