The Mouth by Henry Anderson

When sixteen-year-old Jack's hometown is burned down and his family killed, his only chance of survival is to travel through a device called 'The Mouth' that opens doors into other worlds.

He must do the impossible-find the world that gave his enemies their extraordinary power and travel to a place known simply as 'The Maximum.'

This book is Anderson's transition from news reporting to novelist.  He shows a lot of promise as a novelist, but I think there's still some work to be done.  Needless to say, it's a tough job to go from such extremes of writing.

The plot is phenomenal.  It's a fresh idea that is carried out pretty well when looking at the timeline.  The characters are bold and vibrant, however any information that you have about them is what you glean along the way.  The worlds that we enter are vast and intricate, but once again, we only have the information about them that we glean along the way.

I didn't finish this book.  It's non-stop action.  It's like being in a chase dream where you never get to stop and breathe.  To tell you the truth, I was just too fatigued to finish it.  Action is a great thing to have in a book, but even more importantly, we need balance.  A little time spent on world building and scene setting and inspecting our characters would go a long way.

I think Anderson could make a great novelist and I'm looking forward to reading more of his works.  He has the facts down.  He's great at keeping you on the edge of your seat.  I'm just hoping he slows down enough to add more of the human interest side of the story so that you don't want to jump off the edge of your seat.  When I find myself chanting for the hero to die, I know a little work still needs to be done.

Over all, if you're an action junkie, you'll like this one just as is.  If you're looking for more than that, wait for his next book and give that one a shot.