View source for Arthur Quinn and the World Serpent (The Father of Lies Chronicles) by Alan Early

{{infobox2
|title=Arthur Quinn and the World Serpent (The Father of Lies Chronicles)
|author=Alan Early
|reviewer=Mary Esther Judy
|genre=Confident Readers
|rating=4.5
|buy=Yes
|borrow=Yes
|isbn=9781856358279
|pages=320
|publisher=Mercier Press
|date=August 2011
|aznuk=1856358275
|aznus=1856358275
|cover=1856358275
|website=http://www.arthurquinn.ie/home.html
|video=CUc5ur4_eMA
|summary=An ancient evil is awakening underneath the streets of Dublin. And it's just Arthur Quinns' luck, that just when he moves to the city, it notices him. Combining the present day with Viking lore, this book is fast-paced and thrilling... simply wonderful.
}}

When Joe Quinn is offered a great job working on the new Metro tunnels, within just a few days, he and his son Arthur have packed up and moved from a peaceful life in Kerry across country to central Dublin.
 
There, Arthur's life changes completely… new house, new school, new friends, and very strange new dreams. While on a school trip to visit the tunnels, Arthur and Ash find themselves lead by Will into a dangerous, forbidden tunnel in search of Poddle, the ancient underground river, where Arthur discovers a mysterious glowing pendant. It depicts a giant snake wrapped around a giant tree and has clearly been left there since the days of the Vikings.  It is soon revealed that the pendant is a warning to the friends; a warning of something ancient… something legendary…. something evil. And it’s about to wake up after thousands of years of imprisonment at the hands of the Norse gods. Arthur's father is attacked and left fighting for his life; all is not as it seems with Arthur's new friends and the Viking trickster god, Loki shows his hand as the World Serpent arises, hell-bent on destroying the friends, Dublin and, ultimately the world. It truly will take a hero to defeat a god and save the world.

'Arthur Quinn and the World Serpent' is a truly superb book. Early has woven a story that accesses ancient Viking lore and combines it effortlessly with the lives of contemporary teenagers living in Dublin. The characters and relationships between the friends, their parents, their teacher and others are carefully considered and well developed with a natural ease. The reader experiences the developing friendships. The descriptions given in the book allow the reader to be carried easily along through the day to day routines of Arthur, Ash (Ashling) and the elusive, yet strangely magnetic Will with a tangible sense of their ordinary reality, as well as time and location. The effect is very cinematic. Yet there always seems to be something amiss, the timing of events as they unfold ever so slightly off. At times, this can be unsettling and requires a bit of patience. But it is this carefully crafting of something being askew that propels the reader forward and creates the tension as the drama builds and unfolds. With several real surprise twists built into the plot, this book was an amazing read. The timing, pace and characterisation were brilliant and genuine. 'Arthur Quinn and the World Serpent’ begins the Father of Lies Chronicles, and I, for one, can’t wait for the rest! A must read for fans of fantasy and mythology.

This book joins other great fantasy novels such as, the [[The Sorcerer of the North: Book Five (Ranger's Apprentice) by John Flanagan|Rangers Apprentice series by John Flanagan]], the [[Stravaganza City of Secrets by Mary Hoffman|Stravaganza series by Mary Hoffman]] and [[Triskellion by Will Peterson]].

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[[Category:Teens]]