Michael Adams, Terrortide (The Seven Signs #6), Scholastic Australia, Sept 2017, 192pp., $14.99 (pbk), ISBN 9781743628065
This is book six in the seven-book series, The Seven Signs. The DARE Award winners (seven teenagers from seven different continents) have escaped from the compound of Marco Bravo in Columbia, but now they’re trapped mid-air in a cargo plane whose pilot is dead – how will they get down alive? And if they manage that, they need to get to Australia, figure out the next signs and stop the next attack.
Like all the other books in this series, this instalment tears along at a breakneck pace. The teenagers lurch from one life threatening situation to the next with barely a chance to catch their breath, let alone eat or sleep. The plot and dialogue read very much like an action movie, with over the top action sequences, two dimensional baddies and the occasional cheesy joke. As an Australian, I also have to register my disbelief than an Australian State Premier would issue police with a shoot to kill order for looters in Sydney.
Again, like all the other books in this series, this one ends on a cliff-hanger. Although it has a brief “catch-up” summary at the beginning, this book doesn’t stand alone from the others in this series, and they really should be read together and in sequence for things to make sense. This series will no doubt be popular with teens, especially boys and reluctant readers. There is plenty of violence, but it’s mostly detached, action movie style violence. This book would do best in public and secondary school libraries.
Reviewed by Rebecca Kemble
- Read reviews of earlier books in The Seven Signs series: #5 Crimewave, #4 Killswitch, #3 Wipeout, #2 Carnage and #1 Skyfire (and here and here)
