Book Review: Book of Thunder by John Peel

Book #27 of 2024:

Book of Thunder by John Peel (Diadem #4)

The third Diadem story wrapped up the major plot arcs that had been driving the action thus far, which means that this next volume has to function as a bit of a proof-of-concept for the saga moving forward. What are these books about, now that the threats of Sarman, the Triad, and the universe’s unbalanced magic have all been addressed and neutralized?

The answer, at least for now, appears to be a sequence of standalone crises. The previous novel ended on a sudden reveal that the protagonists’ unicorn friend Thunder was in some unspecified danger, which this sequel takes as its premise and resolves before springing its own dramatic cliffhanger out of nowhere: Score has been struck with a curse orchestrated by his gangster father back on Earth, where the other heroes will now have to visit in order to save him.

But first, the child sorcerers must help the unicorns against their latest enemy, who presents himself as one of their kind challenging Thunder for control of the herd but turns out to be a body-hopping magician up to vaguely nefarious ends. (His plan is basically to earn the animals’ trust, kill them for the magical properties in their horns, and then find another human life to take over. It’s a solid idea, but both deployed and defeated way too quickly. He even could have succeeded in goading Helaine into killing him — the act that triggers the switch — if he hadn’t monologued his whole M.O. at her beforehand. And no, there’s no mention of how she’s only just escaped a similar threat to her personhood from her past/future self on Jewel.)

As an episodic adventure, this is largely fine, especially given the intended middle-grade audience. I have my quibbles, like the fact that post-Triad we’re still seeing pictographic puzzles for the kids to solve, some without any justification for who would have written them and why (but not treated as a mystery or ever returned to, so far as I can remember). But it’s not actively bad for the most part; it’s just sort of blandly generic fantasy storytelling. And I’m sure the ‘horse girl’ demographic would likely feel more strongly towards the interlude when our warrior heroine transforms herself into a juvenile unicorn to secretly infiltrate the villain’s circle.

Personally, I’m more struck by the quieter domestic moments of series continuity here. Pixel, Score, and Helaine return to the castle of the foe they vanquished in the last book, and start treating it as their home. The blue-skinned boy still canonically has a crush on Helaine, but we’re starting to see more subtext of developing feelings between her and Score. Meanwhile their allies Oracle and Shanara each pop up again, and even work together for the first time. Those are the dynamics that keep me reading more than the current quest of the day, but it’s not exactly a gripping narrative.

★★★☆☆

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