Completely unimaginative

The Adventures of Kid Combat Volume One: A Secret Lost by Christopher Helwink

My rating: 1 of 5 stars





There is a group who doesn’t exist. They are called the Secret Organization of Clever Kids or S.O.C.K.S. Kid Combat, secret kid agent and leader, and his gang are out to save their town from the likes of Jones who is trying to take over every inch of their beloved town.



If you can step back after weeding through way too much fluff and extra stuff, the storyline is cute is and would appeal to the 9-12 age group. They probably wouldn’t notice the numerous clichés or confusing inconsistencies. They may not even notice that the overall idea is completely unimaginative and too predictable. In fact, 9-12 year olds might enjoy that. But the book seemed way too long to me and each chapter seemed to drag on forever—not appealing to a reluctant reader of said age group—and I’m an adult and avid reader!



I could have tolerated the overly simplistic bad guys is the author had just spent a little more time on the characterization of the heroes instead of all the nifty gadgets and the cool new Playground that they somehow secretly built in a grove a trees off the park (a bunch of 10 year old kids managed to squirrel away and install that much glass and wood flooring?). If these kids were such geniuses and so special, it is highly unlikely they would all be the same age and in the same classroom at the same school. Okay, so it’s a small town with only one school. The author took the easy way out on that one otherwise the kids would have been a variety of ages and in at least two, maybe three different classrooms.



The author also seemed to use this as an opportunity to climb on his soapbox about big companies taking over small towns to “improve” them. I really think that personal agenda will be lost on this age group.



I’m glad this was a free download, because I would have been very disappointed, possibly upset, to have wasted any money on this.





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