Erebos by Ursula Poznanski

Allen and Unwin, 2012. ISBN 9781742379531.
(Ages: 13+) Sixteen year old Nick Dunmore is a popular and clever high school student who is given a role-playing computer game that blends a fantasy world with real life. Like many of his school mates he becomes addicted to the game and it is only when he is eliminated and cannot play anymore that he takes action to expose the dangers presented by the game Erebos. His life and that of his close friends become at risk as they hunt the creator of the game and try to convince others of his evil intent.
While the fantasy world is described in detail and with great imagination I found it difficult to sustain my interest and found myself skipping parts of chapters. The decision by the author to use present tense for the fantasy chapters and past tense for the real world was also irritating.
Nick is not a particularly likeable character and other characters are not well developed. The climax was a letdown for me although I was glad that the solution to the puzzle of Erebos was not supernatural. It has an eye catching front cover and a good sized and clear font to assist readers. It has been translated from its original language of German into 20 other languages.
I believe there will be fantasy loving students who persevere with this book and I will also be recommending it to some of our online gaming students.
Chris Lloyd