The Quillan Games
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| First edition 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 | Simon & Schuster |
| Released | May 16, 2006 |
| Media Type | Print (Hardback) |
| Pages | 486 pp (first edition, hardback) |
| ISBN | ISBN 1416914234 (first edition, hardback) |
| Preceded by | The Rivers of Zadaa |
| Followed by | The Pilgrims of Rayne |
The Quillan Games is the seventh book in D.J. Machale's Pendragon book series. Actual photo of book shown here. The book takes place after The Rivers of Zadaa and was released on May 16, 2006 in Canada and the US. It will be released on November 16, 2006 in the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand and other places.
In the new installment, Pendragon Book Seven: The Quillan Games, Bobby visits Quillan, a territory of games where to lose is to die. Quillan is a territory on the verge of destruction. The people have lost control of their own future. The only chance they have of finding a better life is by playing the Quillan Games -- games in which game masters Veego and LaBerge use the people of Quillan as pawns in competitions that range from physical battles to impossible obstacle courses to computer-driven tests of agility. To triumph in the games is to live the life of a king. To lose is to die. Bobby quickly realizes that the only way to save this troubled territory is to beat Veego and LaBerge at their own games and dismantle their horrible fun house. But there is more at stake for Bobby. The prize for winning the Quillan Games may be discovering the truth of what it really means to be a Traveler.
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[edit] Setting
The story takes place in a territory called Quillan. According to Saint Dane, Quillan once was much like Earth, but now most of the citizens of Quillan live dreary lives in drab, gray cities. Many people bet on the games for hopes of a better life; however if they lose the bet they might lose their lives, so this is very dangerous. The few famous players who play the games are called challengers, and they live in fancy castles while they are playing; however they almost always die playing the dangerous games before they can enjoy living in the castle for very long.
[edit] Plot summary
Like the other books, the plot of The Quillian Games is two subplots: One featuring Bobby's adventures on Quillan, the other featuring Mark and Courtney's adventures as they read Bobby's journals and occasionally battle Saint Dane from their homes on Second Earth.
[edit] Bobby
The story begins when Bobby arrives on Quillan in the flume, straight from Zadaa where in the sixth book, he helped Loor save Zadaa and mysteriously raised her from the dead. Bobby appears in a huge empty warehouse and is promptly attacked by quigs, Saint Dane's assassins, which on Quillan turn out to be giant spiders the size of kittens. After killing a quig, he finds that it's a robot.
Upon escaping the quigs, he finds his way out of the warehouse and discovers a huge arcade filled with games. He soon learns that games of Quillan are much more serious than on Second Earth, because the losers are often killed. He also puts on a silver bracelet called a loop, which he soon finds out is a tracking device that is nearly impossible to slip off. After being chased by, and escaping from robot policmen called dados, he finds himself in the middle of a city he later finds out to be called Rune. He notices that the word BLOK seems to be posted everywhere, but he has no idea what the word means. While he is trying to be inconspicuous and escape from the dados, he notices a strange incident; two people who grab their left biceps as a strange gesture.
However, he is soon distracted by a game being played on the big screens; he sees two challengers playing a game called Tato together; he notices that one of the challengers is wearing a Traveler ring. Unfortunately, the Traveler loses and dies, which makes Bobby angry and determined to avenge this death.
However, Bobby is soon captured by the android dados, who drive him to a castle. Bobby soon realizes that the bright red shirt he is wearing sets him apart as a challenger, a contestant of the games. Bobby is greeted by the siblings LaBerge and Veego, who are very hospitable to Bobby. Bobby, however is not friendly to them, and spends his first evening in his new room in the castle writing his journals and reflecting on how he doesn't have any idea what's wrong with Quillan and how Saint Dane fits into the mix.
Soon, Bobby learns of how much Challengers are forced to play games; he immediately has to beat a game called Hook just to get to dinner and then promptly afterwards he is rushed into another game called Tock to prove his competetiveness and worth. After he managed to win the game, he meets Nevva Winter, a Blok assistant. Later he is introduced to Nevva and learns she is really the Traveler from Quillan, while the Traveller who died playing Tato was named Remudi, and was the Traveler from the territory of Ibara. Unfortunately, before Nevva can explain more, she has to leave Bobby stranded in the strange territory, trapped with LaBerge and Veego in the challenger's castle with no idea what to do next.
Bobby spends a few weeks at the castle, and learns a lot about challengers and games; unfortunately he still doesn't come close to finding Saint Dane as he does not learn anything more about the rest of Quillan. Finally, after a long time at the castle, Nevva takes Bobby to a meeting outside of the castle in the Blok office. There Bobby learns how Blok is a coroporation that, over many generations, has gradually taken over Quillan and forced people to live a harsh life. He also finds out that Saint Dane has been pretending to be one of the ten leaders of Blok, called Mr. Kayto. There Saint Dane makes an offer to Bobby; he says that if Bobby will compete in the Grand X, an upcoming game, then he will tell Bobby the most hidden secret of the Travellers's true nature. Though Saint Dane's offer is tempting, Bobby decides not to risk his life in any more games and refuses it.
When Bobby is driving back to the castle, he is kidnapped by some mysterious people wearing black and is taken to an underground hideout. He finds out that they are a secret team called the revivers, and that their goal is to save Quillan from the control of Blok and make it a free territory again. Nevva is one of them. They want Bobby to compete in the Grand X, in order to stir the majority of the people into a revolt against Blok. To help convince Bobby to make this choice, they show him to a top-secret hidden library they call Mr. Pop, which contains the history of Quillan. Bobby finally agrees and is sure that his decision will be the turning point for Quillan and will save the territory.
Bobby turns himself in to LaBerge and Veego, then immediately starts competing in the Grand X, against a champion called Challenger Green. During the game, Bobby learns some astonishing secrets; he learns that LaBerge and Veego are from the territory of Veelox, but were taken here by Saint Dane. He also learns that Saint Dane has taken them to many different territories, including Cloral, Eelong, and Zadaa, and got the ideas for some of their games from those territories.
In the end, Bobby wins, not only the game, but also the hearts of the people, and they start revolting against Blok, just like Bobby and the revivers wanted. However, just when he thinks the territory of Quillan is saved, he is captured by Saint Dane and finds out that Nevva had been with Saint Dane all along. He then learns that, though both of them were blindfolded, Nevva gave away the location of the huge library since she carried a bug to "Mr. Pop", which the dados would later incinerate. Bobby loses the territory of Quillan to Saint Dane. He also learns that Challenger Green was really Saint Dane in disguise. Saint Dane also mentions something called the Convergence, which he believes is inevitable. Nevva reveals that she will probably become the Traveller for Ibara, since Remudi is dead.
Nevva and Saint Dane escape, and it is revealed that Saint Dane has taught Nevva how to transform; they both turn into giant birds and fly away. The journal ends with Bobby telling Mark and Courtney that before he goes off to fight Saint Dane again, he will return to Second Earth, to take a break, but also to find out what has been happening there. Just before Bobby leaves for the flume, he talks to a woman named Elli Winter, who is Nevva's mother. Elli tells Bobby how she was originally supposed to be the Traveller from Quillan, but was too afraid to take on the responsibility, so gave it to her daughter. Now she feels she is ready to take on the responibility. As on Veelox, the territory has a last vestige of hope.
[edit] Mark and Courtney
The last book, The Rivers of Zadaa, ended with Courtney beginning recovery from her car accident when Saint Dane tried to kill her. Courtney continues to recover, but it takes her all fall. Meanwhile, Mark studies science with Andy Mitchell, his former bully but new friend. By Thanksgiving in November, she is ready to begin school again. Mark and Mitchell show Courtney their new invention: A kind of mold called Forge that can transform its shape when the user talks to it.
While Courtney is enjoying her first days at school since the accident, Mark finds out he can go to Orlando, Florida to enter his invention in a contest; however, because of an accident with Mitchell's flower shop, Mark's parents end up taking one plane flight to Florida while Mark is scheduled to take a different one. Later, Courtney discovers that the flight that Mark's parents had taken had vanished; all passengers are dead. Courtney goes to the flume entrance, and there discovers that Mark had gone into the flume to another territory. She also discovers that Andy Mitchell had been Saint Dane all along, even since her childhood. She also realizes that she was a pawn in Saint Dane's plan to gain Mark's trust as Andy Mitchell, since saving Courtney formed a bond between the two. Saint Dane mysteriously takes Courtney through the flume right back to Second Earth.
Courtney soon finds that although most of her home is still intact, there are some strange new technologies which were not there when Courtney had left. When Bobby comes back to Second Earth, he and Courtney discover that these technologies were made by a company called Dimond Alpha Digital Organization. They suspect that it may have something to do with Mark, whose last name is Dimond, and they also realize that the initials spell the word DADO, the name of the robot police from Quillan. Bobby and Courtney decide the next step is to find out how this has changed the Earth territories' history, so the story ends with Bobby and Courtney going into the flume for Third Earth together.
[edit] Characters in "The Quillan Games"
- Robert "Bobby" Pendragon - The main character of the Pendragon series, a teenage boy whose duty is to save Halla (e.g., the universe), one territory at a time, from the evil demon, Saint Dane. In this book, he attempts to save Quillan from destruction.
- Saint Dane - An evil demon who wants to destroy the territories and control all of Halla. He takes the place of Mr. Kayto, a trustee, and Challenger Green.
- Nevva Winter - A woman who used to be the Traveler of Quillan, but decided to join Saint Dane on his evil quest, and will continue her treachery as the new Ibaran Traveler. When Bobby tried to catch her, Nevva and Saint Dane leaped out of a high window. However, when Bobby looked out the window, there were no bodies, suggesting that they had changed into birds and flown away.
- Elli Winter - Nevva's mother. She took the position of the Quillian Traveler after her daughter joined Saint Dane.
- Veego and LaBerge - The two announcers of the games. At the end of the book, they are revealed to be from Veelox, siblings who used to be phaders of Lifelight.They got the ideas for the games by ideas of jumpers in lifelight and from other territories though are unaware of the battle for Halla. Veego is generally strict while LaBerge acts childish and immature.
- Remudi - The Traveler from Ibara who gets tricked into fighting as Challenger Yellow by Nevva and gets killed on the Tato platform by Challenger Green (Saint Dane)
- Courtney Chetwynde - One of Bobby's Acolytes. Becomes the only Acolyte of Second Earth after Mark's Parents are killed.
- Mark Dimond - One of Bobby's Acolytes and his best friend. Supposedly joins Saint Dane after his parents are killed.
- Andy Mitchell - Saint Dane in disguise. Acted the part of a school bully for many years, then became an idiot savante in technological science, so as to ingratiate himself with Mark Dimond.
[edit] Facts and Trivia
- Nevva is the first known Traveler to join Saint Dane.
- Quillan is the second territory to be lost to Saint Dane. The first, Veelox, was lost in the fourth book, The Reality Bug. Besides those two, five territories have been won by Bobby: Denduron, Cloral, First Earth, Eelong, and Zadaa. However, Eelong is only a half-victory because the flume in it has been destroyed, trapping 2 travelers inside it and killing another while collapsing. Oddly enough, both Territories lost happen to be extremely advanced in technology and hedonistic in culture.
- This book is the only book of the series where there are two possible territories to save, Nevva stated that she was traveling to Ibara, and Bobby and Courtney travel to Third Earth to research what happened to Mark.
- The earlier prints of The Quillan Games showed "Pendragon the Great" as the title of the 8th book but DJ thought it was unfitting so now the newer version show The Pilgrims of Rayne. DJ considers the older prints showing "Pendragon the Great" to be collectors.
[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 | ||||||||
