The Merchant of Death
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| Book Cover | |
| Author | D. J. MacHale |
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| Cover Artist | Victor Lee |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Series | Pendragon |
| Genre(s) | Fantasy novel |
| Publisher | Aladdin |
| Released | September 1, 2002 |
| Media Type | Print (Paperback & Hardback) |
| Pages | 372 pp (first edition, paperback) |
| ISBN | ISBN 0-7434-3731-4 (first edition, paperback) |
| Followed by | The Lost City of Faar |
The Merchant of Death is the first book in the Pendragon series by D. J. MacHale.
Contents |
[edit] Plot introduction
The story takes place in a territory called Denduron. Denduron has three suns, one to the east, the north, and the south, but besides that, it had most of the same characteristics as Earth. There are two tribes at war: the Milago and the Bedoowan. The Milago are treated very poorly; they live in little huts with outhouses, and have to mine for a valuable stone called glaze every hour of the day in order to meet Queen Kagan's demands. The Bedoowan have more advanced tools such as running water, stoves, and artificial light.
[edit] Plot summary
This book, as well as all the other books in the series, is written as two different subplots happening at the same time. One subplot is Bobby's adventures in the territory of Denduron, but the story also tells of his friends back on Earth, Mark and Courtney, who read of Bobby's adventures in the journals he sends them.
The story starts when Bobby is just about to leave his home to go to the state semi-finals, when Courtney shows upon his front porch. There is a romantic scene, but soon Bobby's Uncle Press comes and tells Bobby to come with him.
They drive on a motorcycle to a boarded-up subway station in the Bronx, where Uncle Press shows Bobby a passage through space-time called a flume. He and Bobby travel to the territory of Denduron, where Bobby learns how he is not an ordinary fourteen-year-old boy, but a Traveler chosen to fight Saint Dane. Saint Dane is also a Traveller, whose dominant purpose is to destroy the barriers between the ten territories of Halla. "Halla", an anagram of "Allah", is the Travelers' name for the Universe; the territories are ten different versions of history, one of which is our own, referred to as Second Earth. Bobby meets Loor, the traveller from Zadaa; her mother, Osa; Alder, the Traveller from Denduron; Rellin, the leader of the Milago miners; and Figgis, a strange merchant. Unfortunately, while Osa is showing Bobby the mines, she is attacked by Bedoowan knights and killed.
Because Uncle Press had been kidnapped by Bedoowan knights, Bobby, Alder and Loor try to rescue him from the Bedoowan castle, armed with a backpack full of tools brought from Bobby's home to make the job of rescuing Uncle Press easier. (During this time, Bobby realizes that the Bedoowan live a lotus-eater life, as they listen to music, relax on pillows, and eat, attended by the pallid, taciturn Novans. Also, technologically speaking, the Bedoowan are light years ahead of the Milago with examples including dumbwaiters, running water, and artificial light.) This turns out to be a mistake. While Bobby, Loor, and Alder are escaping from the Bedoowan castle with Uncle Press, Figgis steals their flashlight and uses the batteries as a trigger for an explosive called tak. Then the miners take the bomb and present it to the Bedoowan, disguised as a big present of "glaze", intending to set it off and destroy all the Bedoowan. Bobby, Loor, Alder, and Uncle Press realize that if the Milago succeed with tak, they will end up destroying all of Denduron. (Bobby realizes this especially after Rellin announces, "We could turn our miserable lives around to become the leaders of Denduron).
They manage to stop the bomb from going off, and Bobby finds out that tak dissolves in water. Thus, Bobby and Loor dissolve the tak and spread the solution over the stadium field so it will not be able to detonate again in the short term. At this point, Figgis the merchant lures Bobby and Loor into the mines alone, where they find an immense supply of tak. They soon realize that Figgis is really Saint Dane. The real Figgis died when one of his own traps backfired. Disguised as Figgis, Saint Dane sold the tak to the Milago, urging them to rebel against the Bedoowan. At the same time, Saint Dane has disguised himself as Mallos, Queen Kagan's chief advisor, and had turned Bedoowan minds against their neighbors. Hoping to destroy the supply of tak once and for all, Bobby sets a fuse about to detonate all. Saint Dane escapes the impending destruction by using the flume in the mine to go to the territory of Cloral. He makes sure Bobby and Loor can't follow him by sending a shark. Bobby just manages to escape the explosion by pusing a mine cart with an unconscious Loor in it into the ocean through a ventilation shaft. When they swim back to the shore and survey the damage, they find that although there has been lots of destruction because of the explosion, most of the people are still alive, including Uncle Press and Alder. The castle, symbollic of Bedoowan rule over the Milago, is sent into the ocean because of the explosion. The glaze mines are forever closed. Thus, the two tribes can use their best strengths to improve each other's lives (Milago-farming and building and Bedoowan-engineering and chemistry).
Bobby travels back to Second Earth with Uncle Press, hoping to find his family and carry on with his former life. Unfortunately, he soon learns that his house and family have disappeared, leaving not a rack behind, so he decides to travel to Cloral and continue his mission to avert Saint Dane's mischief.
While all this is going on for Bobby, his paramour Courtney Chetwynde and their friend Mark Dimond are on the receiving end of his travel diary. Following the advice of Osa, Bobby and Loor are using their spare time to write logs of their journeys, which are sent to their respective home territories via the Traveler rings. These rings are made of the same stone which lines the flume; when the desired territory is named, the ring becomes a miniscule version of the flume, through which the journals are dropped.
Although initially reluctant to believe the astonishing story, Mark and Courtney accept it in time. They soon have no choice; Bobby's family, his home, and all record of his existence have vanished without a trace. Only memory remains.
When Bobby returns, he too must face this difficult fact. As his uncle Press sets off for the territory of Cloral, Bobby goes with him.
[edit] Characters in "The Merchant of Death"
- Robert "Bobby" Pendragon - The main character of the story, a 14-year-old boy from Second Earth.
- Saint Dane - The villain of the story, an evil Traveller capable of shape-shifting. His goal is to bring chaos to Halla.
- Press Tilton - Bobby's uncle. A much more experienced Traveller, who helps Bobby learn how to become one.
- Mark Dimond - Bobby's best friend from Earth; described as a nerd.
- Courtney Chetwynde - Another of Bobby's friends from Earth; described as being very attractive, and good at sports.
- Loor - The traveller from Zadaa. In this book Loor travells to Denduron with her adoptive mother to help stop Saint Dane.
- Osa - Loor's adoptive mother.
- Alder - The Traveller from Denduron. Although he is a trained Bedoowan knight, he is concerned about the Milago and helps the rest of the Travellers whenever he can.
- Kagan - The evil queen of the Bedoowan. It was mainly the fault of Kagan that the Milago have to live so poorly.
- Rellin - The leader of the Milago miners.
- Mallos - A knight in service of Queen Kagan.
- Figgis - A mysterious merchant.
[edit] Setting statistics
Some statistics of Denduron, taken from The Guide to the Territories of Halla:
- Territory Era: 124-the year of rising light
- Principal Tribes: Bedoowan, Gallauao, Milago, Novan, Reuenian, Toom
- Population: Approximately 12,300,000
- Three Suns: Noab, Lao, Rigg
- Landmass: Fifteen continents; three inhabited (Bedoo, Nodd, Galla), 12 uncharted
- Oceans: 9. The largest, Tinitebian, surrounds the continent of Bedoo where the Bedoowan and Milago tribes live
- Highest Peak: The mountain of Orloo (on the continent of Nodd). At 29,112 feet, it is taller than Mount Everest of Second Earth and three times as tall as the mountains of loom near the Milago village
- Climate: Inhabited continents along the meridian are temperate. Uncharted continents to the north and south are frozen
- Currency: Quills
- Time Measured In: Marrs (one marr = approximately 1 hour).
- Major Holidays: Feast of Noab (Milago holiday to celebrate on the harvest), Kukura (Novan holiday that rejoices in the creation of the stars), Runnow Taa (Bedoowan holiday of music)
- Traveler: Alder
Get more information on territories and Travellers in general in the article on the Pendragon series
[edit] External links
| Books in the Series: | ||||||||
| The Merchant of Death · The Lost City of Faar · The Never War · The Reality Bug · Black Water · The Rivers of Zadaa · The Quillan Games · The Pilgrims of Rayne (forthcoming) · The Guide to the Territories of Halla (Companion Book) | ||||||||
| Characters: | ||||||||
| Bobby Pendragon · Saint Dane · Loor · Alder · Vo Spader · Vincent "Gunny" Van Dyke · Patrick · Aja Killian · Kasha · Remudi · Nevva Winter · Courtney Chetwynde · Mark Dimond | ||||||||
| Locations: | ||||||||
| Halla · Second Earth · Denduron · Cloral · First Earth · Veelox · Eelong · Zadaa · Quillan · Ibara · Third Earth | ||||||||
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