Anderson Atlas YA novelist and illustrator

Anderson Atlas is an author and illustrator in Arizona

I’m an author / illustrator and have been since I was a wee babe. My days consist of sitting around the fire, recounting epics of giants and hidden fairies while exploring the sacred mountains east of the moors. I’ve crossed the forbidden boundaries, explored the dark dungeons, and returned to tell the tales.

Return to Lan Darr Review #5

5stars FIVE STARS!

We recently reviewed book one in the Heroes of Distant Planets series by Anderson Atlas, so it was a pleasure to read a preview copy of the second book in the series. While too many action/adventure titles aimed at middle grade and “younger” young adult audiences seem to focus on the “movie-worthy” adventure–meaning the Hollywood-esque action series, as if the author wrote it with a movie franchise in mind–it’s refreshing to read a series that actually works in the crucial world building that so many fantasy fans crave.

Both of Atlas’ books have relied heavily on the type of characterizations that made books like A Wrinkle in Time, The Chronicles of Narnia, and even the Harry Potter series so popular with readers. The main characters not only travels to far off places, but he meets a widely varied cast of alien creatures in every new location. The creatures themselves not only have full enough physical descriptions to hold the readers’ interest, but they have their own backstory and struggles woven in.

Speaking of struggles, Return to Lan Darr opened with one of the most realistic and timely portrayals of modern-day teen problems that any book has presented in a long time. It’s particularly upsetting to read ridiculous or outdated portrayals of bullying, and the concept that a handicapped student (the main character was paralyzed in the car accident that killed his parents) is “untouchable” when it comes to bullying is horrifically inaccurate. School systems and administrators like to tell themselves that any student with special needs is somehow safe from that kind of thing–mostly because we like to tell ourselves that adults would never bully a handicapped person, so therefore kids would be kind enough to leave him alone–but as Atlas clearly demonstrates, it is simply not true. After Allan’s diary where he writes down his adventures on Lan Darr (from book one) is stolen and passed around the entire school via a Facebook-like social media site, he has more incentive than ever to try to get back to the planet and fight Jibbawk in order to save his new friends.

REVEIW BY READIOACTIVE-BOOKS
https://readioactivebooks.com/2016/05/23/review-return-to-lan-darr-by-anderson-atlas/

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