Mysticons – Prophecy of Evil

Sadie Chesterfield's Mysticons - Prophecy of Evil is a magic adventure for 9 year olds about four girls with borrowed powers and a prophecy nobody wants to read out loud.

What happens

Drake City runs on magic and phones at the same time, which is a fun combination. The four Mysticons ride griffins and call up their powers from bangles, and they also have to answer the phone.

Arkayna is the Dragon Mage and throws fireballs. Em is the Knight, with a shield and a sword. Zarya is the Ranger, with a bow. Piper is the Striker, and her weapons are hoops of pure energy, which the book says are perfect for throwing at bad guys.

Only Arkayna has a second secret. Under the mask she's the princess of Gemina, and almost nobody knows.

The story starts with them copying a stolen artefact so they can finally read the prophecy on it. It works. Then they wish it hadn't, because what it says is that when twin stars unite, a spectral beast will rise.

And Nova Terron, the old mage who is supposed to be helping them, will not explain the rest.

The best thing in it is Arkayna's temper. When she finds out what was kept from her, she doesn't make a speech. She throws a fireball at him and then rescues him from a falling boulder about a minute later, because she has to, and tells him they're finished the moment the quest is over. That's a proper feeling handled properly.

It moves fast. Short chapters, a fight in most of them, jokes dropped in the middle of the danger. Oh my goblin. The evil lich hit a glitch. A small furry creature called Choko gets disguised as the princess and scratches behind his ear with his foot.

Now, the honest bit. The Mysticons are teenagers, and the plot turns on a baby being taken from her mother at birth and the mother's memory of her being magically erased. There's a Queen of the Undead, an army of skeleton creatures, one character held helpless while another prepares to kill him, and a villain who throws a toddler over a railing while saying children should be neither seen nor heard.

Nobody dies on the page here and the tone stays bright. But that's a lot of dark furniture for a younger reader, and most of it arrives early.

A child of nine who already watches this sort of thing will be fine and will love the fights. A child who doesn't, probably won't.

What to read next

For another team of four young heroes with their own powers, there's Spirit Animals - Heart of the Land. Conor, Abeke, Meilin and Rollan each have an animal bonded to them, and they've arrived at a crumbling citadel where the grown-up rulers of their world are about to meet for the first time in years.