Book Review: Book of War by John Peel

Book #45 of 2024:

Book of War by John Peel (Diadem: Worlds of Magic #7)

The Diadem series had its ups and downs, but when it ended its initial six-book run with Scholastic in 1998, there weren’t really any major lingering plot threads that made its continuation seem likely or at all necessary from a creative standpoint. Surprisingly, the sequence did later get revived by the publisher Llewellyn, with reprints of the original stories and the release of four subsequent sequels, beginning with this one in 2005 (all under the new series subtitle, Worlds of Magic).

The primary task of this volume, then, is to justify its own existence and convince readers that the basic premise of the franchise still has legs. It’s also an opportunity for author John Peel to flex his talents, showing both how he’s grown as a writer in the years away and how he was probably constrained by his previous editors. Thus, although it’s not especially evident how much time has elapsed since we met our three returning protagonists, they feel like richer and more mature characters — perhaps in their mid-to-upper teens now, rather than the tweens they were to start. The tone of the narrative around them has also deepened, to the point where I’d classify this and the remaining novels as Young Adult fiction instead of middle-grade like what came before. (At long last, all the hokey puzzles and speech distortions are gone!) It’s a glow-up I love to see.

This installment finds the trio of magic-users journeying to Helaine’s homeworld, where we’re reminded that she left considerable unfinished business, including an arranged marriage betrothal, when she was first whisked away on her adventures. Although the feisty heroine has no intention of going through with the wedding, she regrets breaking her father’s agreement and opening him up to political fallout in the form of several rival lords now besieging his castle. A large part of the tale thus involves them mending that parent-child bond, with him eventually coming to respect and accept her as a warrior despite how it flies in the face of their medieval culture’s prescribed gender roles. This isn’t as strong an outing as Score’s return to Earth in Book 5 — among other issues, it’s bizarre that we don’t hear anything about the girl’s swordmaster Borigen, an even more important relationship in her original backstory — and the worldbuilding on Ordin isn’t particularly distinctive. But the character interactions are pretty worthwhile.

This title also introduces a new viewpoint protagonist Jenna, who soon joins the team with her healing powers. She’s the weakest element of the reboot so far in that she’s transparently here just to be a romantic interest for Pixel, with the two of them basically falling for each other at first sight, saying nice things while blushing a lot, and then kissing a few times. At least he’s finally over his old crush on Helaine, whose slow-burn mutual attraction with Score continues to develop nicely. I don’t have much patience for the stammering lovebirds in this book, but the others indicate why they work well as a couple despite all their bickering, as they continually push one another to improve their respective flaws. For Score, that’s his cowardice and rude manners; for Helaine, it’s her arrogance and the surprising degree of classism / racism she directs at Jenna for being a peasant. (The text describes the latter as having light brown skin, though the cover artist at Llewellyn doesn’t seem to have noticed.) Score and Helaine grow by holding each other accountable, and it makes their dynamic of trust feel real and gratifyingly earned throughout.

The teens ultimately resolve the military conflict in an ingenious way, and the conclusion opens up new questions about Score’s parentage as well as the role that Jenna will play in events moving forward, without ending on the sort of sudden random cliffhanger that Peel had sometimes employed in the past. Book of War isn’t a stone-cold classic by any means, but as a proof-of-concept for a series restart, it definitely gets its readers back on-board.

[Content warning for slavery, gore, and implied threat of sexual violence.]

★★★★☆

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