The Merchant of Death (Pendragon)

Bobby Pendragon is a seemingly normal fourteen-year-old boy. He has a family, a home, and even Marley, his beloved dog. But there is something very special about Bobby.

He is going to save the world.

And not just Earth as we know it. Bobby is slowly starting to realize that life in the cosmos isn't quite what he thought it was. And before he can object, he is swept off to an alternate dimension known as Denduron, a territory inhabited by strange beings, ruled by a magical tyrant, and plagued by dangerous revolution.

If Bobby wants to see his family again, he's going to have to accept his role as savior, and accept it wholeheartedly. Because, as he is about to discover, Denduron is only the beginning....

Average Customer Review: ( 223 customer reviews )
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SUPRISE! I opened the cover and was shocked to discover that the first thing Bobby Pendragon (our protoganist) was doing was kissing a girl! The book was certainly more appealing now with a tad bit of romance and I started to enjoy the story.

Bobby Pendragon's Uncle Press shows up unexpectedly and sweeps him away to another "territory" called Denduron, through a doorway in a New York subway tunnel (no easy access here!) despite being chased by wild beasts called quigs. Bobby soon realizes that his notions of reality are way off.

Bobby is fated to help save the Milago people from their oppressors, the people of the neighboring Bedoowan. Reluctant and scared, Bobby wants to return to his perfect life at home, where he was considered smart, popular, a jock, and not to mention the love interest of the coolest girl in his grade. But no such luck; he must learn how to use his Traveler powers to help save this world...and all the others...from complete distruction...

I really enjoyed this novel. It is told in narrative form as Bobby writes scrolls back to his best friend Mark and sort-of girlfriend Courtney back on Second-Earth to tell them what is happening, and then switches to third-person once in a while to describe what Courtney and Mark are doing. It was fast-paced and Bobby's witty comments made me laugh.

Be warned, this novel also contains explicit language and the afore-mentioned making-out scenes. These parts are appropriate however, and I think that they added a sense of humanity to the read. I'd say do not let this stop you from reading the book!

So go grab the book at your local bookstore and spread the word: its not just for boys! 4 stars for lots of action, not a 5 because the plot was simplistic. I hope the sequel, the Lost City of Faar, is just as good! Happy Reading!

21 of 24 found the following review helpful:

Amazing Start to An Exciting New SeriesApr 01, 2004
By Erika Sorocco
Fourteen-year-old Bobby Pendragon has always thought that he had a normal life. He has a great family, great friends, was lucky enought to have kissed the most perfect girl, has a perfect dog, Marley, and has a super-cool Uncle. But there's something that Bobby never knew about himself, and is about to find out. He's destined to save the world. No, not in ten years from now, but at this very instant. And no, not on this Earth, because life on this Earth is different than Bobby ever thought it could be. Bobby will be saving the world on an alternate dimension called Denduron, a territory inhabited by many strange beings, that is plagued by a dangerous revolution, and ruled by a magical tyrant. Now Bobby is forced to accept his role as savior to the people of Denduron, or else he won't ever see his family again. Besides, Denduron is only the beginning.

D.J. MacHale is a fantastic author who has created an interesting, and out-of-this-world dimension that will pull readers in from the very first page. Bobby is a fun character, who, even though he has to save the world, and is in an alternate dimension, uses teenage lingo of today (i.e. cool, awesome, etc.), that readers will be able to relate to and understand quite well. PENDRAGON: THE MERCHANT OF DEATH is told in alternating chapters between Bobby's journals, and his friends (Mark and Courtney) quest to find Bobby and save him from untimely death, which gives the reader the chance to read both sides of the story. This is an interesting and exciting addition to the science fiction / fantasy genre. A must read.

Erika Sorocco

13 of 14 found the following review helpful:

Fasten Your Seatbelt. It's Gonna Be a Killer Ride.Sep 17, 2002
By AQR
Fantasy is one of the hottest genres for teens right now, and there's plenty to choose from. For those fans new and old who are looking for something more contemporary than, say, His Dark Materials or Lord of the Rings, check out Bobby Pendragon. He's 14. Lives a bit north of New York City. Plays a pretty mean game of basketball. Loves video games. Family, house, dog. Life is good. And then his ultra-cool Uncle Press shows up at his front door one evening, and whisks Bobby away to another dimension, one of ten Territories known as Denduron. And life, as he has always known it, ceases to exist.
Bobby's uncle tells him that he has been chosen to be a Traveler, and his job, should he decide to accept it, is to help his uncle save the Territories from a villain among villains, the evil Saint Dane (who can shape shift and raise all sorts of hell). In this first heart-stopping installment, Saint Dane pits two co-existing societies against each other. If either is destroyed, it'll be easy for him to come to power. Meanwhile, Bobby, who's been thrown into a completely alien environment, has to figure out how to prevent anarchy and manage to stay alive himself. There's nonstop action--and plenty here for girls to enjoy as much as guys, by the way. Bobby is helped out by the beautiful Loor, who can kick some serious butt!
Even if you don't like to read, you will love this book! Whatever you do, don't miss it!

7 of 8 found the following review helpful:

Never boringNov 09, 2008

I am 8 years old, and my Dad is typing this for me. I liked this book because it was very exciting. It was so good, I don't know what to say. I would recommend this book to people who like action and adventure.

4 of 4 found the following review helpful:

Strange plot device is this book's biggest problemFeb 17, 2010
By D. Josephs "Book reader. Pie Baker. Slayer of monsters."
First, in the interest of full disclosure, I am not a tween and the only reason I read this book is that it was free on the Kindle. Further, even though YA fiction is not something I typically read, I did very much enjoy the Potter books, the Narnia books, the Iron Cauldron books, etc. as an adult. In other words, I am able to appreciate a well-crafted novel targeted at a younger audience, but Death Merchant is a puff piece no matter who is reading it. On the other hand, I have little doubt that most 11 to 14 year-olds (boys and girls) will enjoy the universe and characters Mr. MacHale has created, thus the 3-star rating.

Parents can take heart in strong male and female characters, none-too-subtle themes of doing what is right instead of what is easy and that your child is reading a 300+ page novel that occasionally slips in a vocabulary word. Kids will appreciate that the framework Mr. MacHale has created allows for an unlimited number of adventures for Bobby and his cohorts. Sure, these adventures will be completely predictable, but so were The Three Investigators, and I loved those books.

** POSSIBLE SPOILER **

My inability to empathize with the fourteen year-old 1st person voice of the novel was not my biggest hangup with the book. Rather, MacHale employs an strange plot device in which the story is told along two timelines. Roughly a third of the chapters are in our here and now in which the protagonist's friends Mark and Courtney read about the adventure being had by our youthful hero, Bobby. The other two-thirds of the book are essentially Bobby's diary entries that have been sent to Mark and Courtney through a wormhole, and these two frames of reference alternate in a roughly Bobby's Diary...Bobby's Diary...Mark+Courtney discussing the diary fashion. While interesting at first, I quickly came to realize that because all of Bobby's narrative is told after-the-fact in journal entries, the reader need never worry about Bobby. Since he was able to write about this or that and send it to "Second Earth" for his friends to read, he obviously got out of whatever predicament he might have been in. So, all suspense removed from the plot, things got boring really quick. But I'm not 13.

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