Review | The Merchant of Death by D. J. MacHale

A while back, Audible.com offered a free download of The Merchant of Death, the first in D. J. MacHale’s ten-volume Pendragon series. I had nought but the name to go on, but it sounded enticing enough, and the price was right. Recently, I took the time to find out just what I’d downloaded. Aimed at young readers, The Merchant of Death offers up likable protagonists, exciting action, and a sprightly writing style. Thin world-building and an absence of depth, however, relegate the novel to little better than popcorn reading.

The Merchant of Death
By D. J. MacHale; Read by William Dufris
Audible Download – 12 hours 10 mins [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Brilliance Audio
Published: 2008
Print: Hardcover, 384 pages

The Merchant of Death tells the story of 14-year-old Bobby Pendragon, after whom the series is named. On the night of a crucial basketball game–Bobby is his high school’s star player–his eccentric Uncle Press summons him to help with an important task. Bobby soon learns that his uncle is in fact a Traveler, able to traverse between worlds using magical gateways or flumes. Press leads Bobby through one such gateway, pursued by the book’s arch-villain Saint Dane. At the other end of the gateway lies the world of Denduron, a land torn apart by class warfare. Meanwhile, Bobby’s best friend Mark Dimond and Bobby’s slightly-more-than-friend Courtney Chetwynde investigate Bobby’s disappearance.

The narrative alternates between Bobby’s adventures on Denduron and his friends’ attempts to track him down on “Second Earth”, as our world is called. As the story progresses, there is some interlocking between these two perspectives, which makes for good, seamless storytelling.

Bobby Pendragon is the stereotypical reluctant hero, initially unwilling to perform the seemingly impossible tasks that are suddenly thrust upon him. This is a cliché, trite fantasy trope, but Bobby Pendragon nonetheless comes across as sincere and likable. Mark and Courtney are equally well-developed. Unfortunately, the story’s antagonist, Saint Dane, comes across as a two-dimensional cardboard cut-out.

While the intricacies of Traveling between worlds, and the repercussions thereof, receive full development, at least for the first novel in a series, the world-building itself is as paper-thin as the villains. On the planet Denduron, the action is confined to a small geographic area, the lavish palace of the noble Bedoowan and the squalid village of the oppressed Milago. Though other “tribes” on the world of Denduron are briefly mentioned, the world feels fairly empty. This shortcoming is offset somewhat by the presence of Travelers from other worlds, but even these received short shrift.

D. J. MacHale’s lively writing style, full of wit and idiom, makes The Merchant of Death an enjoyable read despite its glaring flaws. MacHale’s background as a television writer is evidenced by his strong, sharp dialogue and spot-on choriography during action sequences. Slang and dialect are hard elements to pull off in a book, but MacHale pulls it off with seldom a hitch.

The Brilliance Audio edition of The Merchant of Death is narrated by William Dufris, whose work I’ve enjoyed on other audiobooks. In this case, however, I found his acting to be slightly over-the-top, over-emphasizing the snappy dialogue that stands well enough on its own. Still, his characterization is strong enough to distinguish the novel’s protagonist, lending each of them a unique voice. The melodramatic performance, moreover, might have been an intentional move on the part of Dufris and the director to make the novel more exciting to young listeners.

Although I’ve done it before and probably will do so again, I can’t help but feel unqualified to review young adult literature. After all, the jade lenses of adult cynicism have already been drawn over my eyes, despite my best efforts. If I try to examine The Merchant of Death from my ten-year-old past self, I imagine I would have been utterly drawn in. So young readers will probably enjoy the novel, and adults longing for a taste of their escapist childhood may also find here a delicious diversion.