Every good story has to have heroes, right? Wizards, crime-fighters, superheroes—the good guys. Not in A World Without Heroes, the first book in Brandon Mull’s exciting new Beyonders trilogy. Eighth grader Jason Walker discovers the world of Lyrian only after getting embarrassed in front of his crush, taking a baseball to the head in a batting cage and falling into the hippopotamus enclosure at the zoo where he volunteers. In fact, he falls not only into the enclosure, but into the gaping mouth of the hippo himself. Jason is not exactly hero material.
When he emerges from the hippo, Jason finds that he has been transported into the mysterious work of Lyrian. After stumbling upon a book bound in living skin that contains the first syllable of a powerful and extremely guarded word, he must make a choice: wait around and suffer a painful death, or attempt to be the hero Lyrian is looking for.
Jason is aided on his quest by a motley cast of characters. His companion for the story is Rachel, a ninth-grade homeschooled girl with a quick wit and (very) sharp tongue. Rachel is also the only other “beyonder,” or person from Earth, to have reached Lyrian in hundreds of years. The pair are joined at different times by Ferrin, a displacer with the ability to detach parts of his body at will, and Jasher, an Amar Kabal, who remains immortal so long as the seed at the base of his neck is replanted each time he dies. But the problem with a world where there are no more heroes is that Jason and Rachel have to figure out who they can trust—or if they can trust anyone.
Author of the best-selling Fablehaven series, Mull is not new to creating stories in which the world you live in is not quite what it seems. A World Without Heroes goes beyond that, transporting readers to an entirely new world filled with new discoveries and new dangers. Readers will be kept off-guard and on the edge of their seats from the first page. Perfect for fans of Rick Riordan and John Flanagan, this is an exhilarating debut in an exciting new series.
