Matt Mikalatos
A Capella Books, 2012, 111 pp., $8.99
In The Sword of Six Worlds, Validus Smith (a.k.a. Val) is an ordinary middle school girl with an ordinary middle school life, that is until a crazy monster appears to stop her from finding a supernatural sword she didn’t know she was looking for to save worlds she didn’t know existed. Val quickly enters into a genre of fantasy with which readers may be familiar, hearkening memories of The Chronicles of Narnia and The Lord of the Rings. What makes this book remarkably outstanding are the fish-out-of-water touches author Matt Mikalatos supplies, including a concept we haven’t yet seen in books of this genre: compassion.
If Val were to use the sword of six worlds in anger or revenge against someone, it would shatter into a million pieces. This burden means she can’t just face down her enemy, Silverback, and kill him, but has to understand him to a point that she is changed on the inside toward him. Without giving away the ending, you can know it’s a fictional example of something you yearn for in the audience of young readers who easily will eat this up. I speak from experience, for my own pre-teen son said it’s easily one of his new favorite books.
With a story full of talking animals, near-death face-offs, living rock-creatures and a girl who knows how to wield a sword, this is easily a fun book with a great message. Any individual reader, book club or family who appreciates biblical allegories in fantasy not only will enjoy going through this, but will appreciate letting its message go through them.
