Grimpow: The Invisible Road
The Grimpow series, Book 1
Rafael Ábalos
Delacorte Books
Fiction, MG Fantasy/Historical Fiction
*** (Okay)
DESCRIPTION: It was winter in the mountains when the boy Grimpow stumbled across the stranger's body, frozen in the snow. When he and his companion and friend, the thief Durlib, investigate, they find silver coins, jewel-handled daggers, a message with a golden seal, and a small, strange stone that glows when Grimpow picks it up... a stone that lets him read the odd symbols on the man's message, though the boy is illiterate and the message is in code. Even more mysteriously, the stranger's body melts like frost on a spring morning after the discovery, as though bespelled.
He does not yet know it, but by taking the stone and the seal, Grimpow has begun a long and dangerous path, one that winds through long-lost histories of the Holy Land, the halls of the outlawed heretical Templar Knights, the centuries-long quests of alchemists, even the cruel and corrupted machinations of the King of France and the Pope. For that nondescript little pebble is the true Philosopher's Stone, an artifact that can lead a chosen mind along the Invisible Road to the Secret of the Wise and the very keys to creation itself - a stone for which many have died. At stake is nothing more or less than the future of humanity, whether people will rise above the age of superstition and brutal ignorance that grips whole nations, or whether all hope of enlightenment will be snuffed out like a candle.
REVIEW: Early on, it looked like Grimpow had promise, an old-school historical fiction yarn with fantasy elements incorporating alchemy and its pursuit of ultimate knowledge and the Philosopher's Stone (as much a symbol of pure wisdom and understanding as a physical object), weaving in real-world events and figures from early 14th century Europe and the corruption underlying the church and its persecution of the Knights Templar. There was a certain straightforward sense of adventure, or at least the promise of adventure, as the illiterate boy finds himself drawn on a path of learning and enlightenment. But it often drags its heels in details and repetition, not to mention numerous points where it felt like the author was lecturing the audience about the history of France, corruption in Catholicism, the origins and brutal ending of the Templars, and medieval secret societies and symbolism as embodied in alchemy and related pursuits and mystery cults. The story and characters often meander and dither without actively progressing the plot (when they aren't repeating themselves as though the reader hadn't been there with them the whole time and remembers full well such details as who Grimpow used to be before finding the stone, or what fate befel Durlib, or his time in the remote monastery studying with the monks who took him in, and so forth). Every so often, the tale manages to be exciting and even interesting, but by the end it had become far too tedious, the plot too orchestrated by Fate and Destiny. The conclusion was a non-event, though this may be explained by the fact that the book was intended to have a sequel, one which I only learned of when searching online and which was apparently never translated into English - a moot point, as I have no interest in pursuing Grimpow's adventures - or lack thereof - further.
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