The First Escape

The First Escape
by G.P. Taylor

A motorcyclist and former rock band roadie turned Anglican minister, Graham Peter (G. P.) Taylor has been hailed as "hotter than Potter" and "the new C. S. Lewis" in the United Kingdom. His first novel, Shadowmancer, reached #1 on the New York Times bestseller list in 2004 and has been translated into 48 languages. His other novels include Wormwood (another New York Times bestseller which was nominated for a Quill book award), The Shadowmancer Returns: The Curse of Salamander Street, Tersias the Oracle, and Mariah Mundi. Taylor currently resides in North Yorkshire with his wife and three children.

Visit the author's website.


Karla's Review: I wasn't real crazy about this story myself, but I expect it will be very popular with teens. It had the feel of a Lemony Snicket story, but there were some uplifting spiritual themes so I did like it better than the oh-so-depressing Series of Unfortunate Events. I didn't care for the style of the artwork. I found it too angular to make out what was happening in each scene.

However, I loved the format of the book! It alternated between a few pages of comic-book-style pages and regular text. This is great for kids (like my daughter) who mostly enjoy graphic novels but could get sucked into reading the text pages to find out "what happens next"! I would love to see more books adopt this format.

AND NOW...THE FIRST CHAPTER: