The Devil’s Breath is a YA action/adventure novel by David Gilman.Fifteen-year-old Brit Max Gordon was minding his own business, taking a run at his private school Dartmoor, when an attempt was made on his life. It’s violent, sudden, and though Max comes out of it the survivor, rattling. After all, someone tried to kill him.
This event leads Max to find out that his father, a mysterious world-traveling ecological protector, is missing. Having been groomed to not sit around and wait for others to find answers, Max takes off on the search himself – clues sending him from London to Namibia, where a disaster of epic proportions may be about to take place – on purpose.
Determined to save his father, whom he believes might be held somewhere, Max must utilize the survival skills he has gleaned from his unorthodox school and his enigmatic dad. But he isn’t alone – he gets help along the way by his best friend Sayid, a computer whiz still back at Dartmoor, a South African teen named Kallie, and a young Bushman that knows the wilds of Africa better than most.
Yet, even with all the help, this isn’t an easy task.
Especially when there is someone, constantly, trying to kill him…
Wow! The Devil’s Breath is an action-packed (and I mean packed) adventure located in exotic locations with wild animals and extremely dangerous villains. David Gilman manages to make the respect demanded for such primitive lands and powerful animals resonate off the pages. I really felt like I was in Africa!
We get foot and car chases, fight scenes galore, and crazy stunts that pepper The Devil’s Breath, keeping a level of vibrant, non-stop suspense that somehow keeps itself grounded with believable characters and reverently awed prose amidst incredible situations. Max is no ordinary fifteen-year-old boy – but he’s also new to this. We get to relate to him a bit. He does get scared. He does get sick. He does get hungry. He does get tired. And that is one of the great things about The Devil’s Breath – it may be insane, but you feel like it’s still possible.
David Gilman has created a fun, and kind of exhausting, mystically edged international YA thriller with constantly switching viewpoints and a blockbuster tone. I’m sure action inclined guy readers will love this, and I thoroughly enjoyed it as well – I’m ready for book two, Ice Claw!
Are you?
*By the way, this week will be the last week in the foreseeable future that I will have five posts a week. Starting on Monday March 5th, I will be returning to three reviews a week – Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. I’m sure we’ll have another month or two in 2012 of five reviews a week, but let’s give our bibliophile selves a little time to breathe for a while, agreed? :)
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