Friday, November 2, 2012

The Mythical 9th Division: Operation Robot Storm by Alex Milway

Albrecht, leader of a top-secret division of yetis, is right in the middle of their yearly competition with the bigfoots of the 6th division when he gets a call. Immediately, he collects his fellow soldiers, the powerful Timonen and the ancient but wise Saar and they're off to Wales to solve the mystery and save the world!

The wacky adventures of Albrecht, Timonen and Saar, involving a supervillain, robots, heroic miners, and yak-tossing, are pretty typical for this genre of nonsense/fantasy/adventure, although using mythical creatures is a nice touch. Each chapter begins with a short comic, usually involving a twist or funny surprise and the chapters are interspersed with additional black and white illustrations and diagrams of the yeti's gadgets, the evil robots, supervillain lair, and more.

Older readers probably won't appreciate the over the top kookiness of this story and it's definitely quite British (the story of the yetis admission to the British Army could definitely have been left out) but younger readers will enjoy the superhero/supervillain flavor, funny black and white comics and illustrations, and the very readable length, only a little over 200 pages.

Verdict: Not required, but definitely an additional purchase if you have fans of this genre. I'll probably get the series next year, when I do my yearly order from Usborne/Kane Miller.

ISBN: 9781610670746; Published 2012 by Kane Miller; Review copy provided by the publisher (added to summer reading prizes); Added to the library's wishlist

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