The Drowned Vault (Ashtown Burials #2)

By N. D. Wilson

Fans of both Percy Jackson and Indiana Jones will be captivated by the lost civilizations, ancient secrets, and buried treasure found in the second book of the Ashtown Burials series, action-packed adventure by N. D. Wilson, the author of Leepike Ridge and the 100 Cupboards trilogy.

It's been almost a year since Cyrus and Antigone Smith earned their places as Journeymen at Ashtown, home of an ancient order of explorers that has long guarded the world's secrets and treasures. While their studies go well, Cy and Tigs are not well liked since losing the Dragon's Tooth to the nefarious Dr. Phoenix. The Tooth is the only object in the world capable of killing the long-lived transmortals, and Phoenix has been tracking them down one-by-one, and murdering them.

The surviving transmortals, led by legendary warrior Gilgamesh of Uruk, descend on Ashtown in force, demanding justice. Cy and Tigs find themselves on the run in a desperate search to locate Phoenix and regain the Tooth. In the process, they uncover an evil even more dangerous than Phoenix, one that has been waiting for centuries to emerge.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Random House Publishing Group
• Release date: Sep 11, 2012
• ISBN: 9780375895739

N. D. Wilson

N. D. Wilson lives and writes in the top of a tall, skinny house only one block from where he was born. But his bestselling novels have traveled far and wide, disguising themselves in many strange languages in dozens of distant and mysterious lands. He is the author of ten novels, including the Outlaws of Time series, the Ashtown Burials series, and the 100 Cupboards trilogy. He and his wife have five young storytellers of their own, along with an unreasonable number of pets. www.ndwilson.com

Reviews for The Drowned Vault (Ashtown Burials #2)

[krau0098 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This is the second book in the Ashtown Burials series. I got an eGalley from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. It was a solid book and really drags the reader deeper into the world of the Order of Brendan. We learn many long kept secrets and have many adventures with Cy and Tigs.After the Phoenix steals the Tooth from Cy and Tigs in book 1, they become even more outcast than they already are. Now the transmortals are descending on Ashtown seeking retribution for the Tooth’s loss and Cy and Tig are in ever increasing danger. Trapped in their room for the duration of the transmortals visit they train hard with the strange Arachne. Then they head off with their Keeper to try to recover the Tooth...only to find that even deeper evil is at hand.I am having a lot of trouble reviewing this book. I love the idea and the characters and the world, but had some trouble with all the different points of view (POV) The plot switches POV a lot and sometimes this got a bit confusing. There are a couple times when I was a little confused about what was going on in general and had to go back and carefully re-read parts. Part of this might have been that since this is an eGalley much of the formatting was lost, so it would take me a few lines to realize that we were in a different place with different characters talking. This made the book frustrating to read.The above aside I really am enjoying the Order of Brendan. There are some great characters in this novel and both Tigs and Cy grow a lot in abilities and power through plain old hard work. One of my favorite additions was the character Arachne, who controls spiders and takes over the Smiths training for parts of the book.There are some wonderfully creative things in this book. A maze of water, spiders that can weave armor, and numerous other wondrous and amazing things. It makes the book a lot of fun to read. We also get to finally meet the most famous Smith of all, John Smith. It was great to find out the Smith history and find the reason why Tigs and Cy have been so disliked from the very beginning. Overall I liked this book. I enjoyed the world, all of the creative things in it, and the characters. I had some trouble with the frequent switching of POVs; it made the story confusing at times and I had to go back a re-read parts to figure out what was going on. This leaves me a bit torn; I really liked the world and characters and plot...but had trouble with the writing style...it just wasn’t as cohesive as it could have been. Still it’s a solid read. I recommend to those you are interested in middle grade adventure fantasy.

[iamjonlarson · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Really enjoying this series so far. One of the better YA book series I've read in a long time. A great sense of wonder and adventure. Evil is evil in this book and good things are celebrated.