Book Review: Book of Oceans by John Peel

Book #51 of 2024:

Book of Oceans by John Peel (Diadem: Worlds of Magic #8)

Unfortunately the weakest Diadem title yet. This next sequel finds Pixel’s new girlfriend Jenna still squabbling with Helaine, despite six months having passed since they left their homeworld’s rigid class system behind them at the end of the previous volume. Oracle recommends a vacation to Brine, a world largely covered with water, but neglects to tell the teen wizards about the rash of recent pirate attacks its residents have been experiencing. Later he admits to their other adult friend Shanara that he’s terrified the kids are going to grow up to be as cruel as the Triad whose powers they inherited, and so has set them a challenge that will confront them with true wickedness: “Their discovery of further evil in the Diadem will cement their determination to fight it, not to succumb to it. If they fight evil in others, they will not allow it in themselves.”

It’s a bit too abstract of a concept to land well, although we learn in the same scene that Shanara has an intriguing secret history with the Three Who Rule(d) that she doesn’t want the heroes to discover. Mostly, though, the premise is just an excuse for some swashbuckling adventure that ultimately does bring the girls closer together. Helaine and Score’s own budding relationship is a relatively strong factor, as it has been for the past few stories, but it’s disappointing how author John Peel twice has them blithely torture a captive prisoner for information. (These books are on the younger side of YA in tone, so the pirates each give up and start talking after the first cut to their neck/face. But still! I feel rather firmly that good guys shouldn’t be doing / threatening that at all, or at least not without considerably more nuance than this. If their actions somehow tied back to Oracle’s fears that the protagonists have the capacity for darkness in them, that could be an interesting plot point and character note, I suppose. But as written, it doesn’t seem like Peel thinks the torturing is over the line — or is aware that it could result in false confessions, as it’s known to do in real life. This novel was published in 2005 during the height of the George W. Bush administration and the popularity of the show 24, and it’s hard not to wonder how much of that atmosphere was subconsciously sinking into his writing.)

There’s an unfortunate vein of misogyny running through the text too, in the form of Score regularly wishing that the girls would wear bikinis for him and Pixel. The topic of different modesty norms between Earth and Ordin was handled pretty well in books 5 and 7, but here, he just comes off as skeevy. The worst part is that the ending basically validates his lechery, with Helaine agreeing to do it because, “Score has behaved exceptionally, and I think I owe him some enjoyment.” It feels gross and wildly out-of-character for her, even given her steady softening towards the boy.

The fantasy worldbuilding for the new setting is fine, but nothing special. I don’t know that the villains ever appear as monstrous as their reputation — though there’s an as-yet-unrevealed magic-user behind their scheme — but they do take slaves, beat them with lashes, and work them to death, so their eventual downfall registers as a proper victory. Overall, however, this is definitely a bit of a filler installment for the series, mainly notable simply for the frustrating elements I described above.

★★☆☆☆

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