William Wenton and the Secret Portal by Bobbie Peers
Walker, 2018. ISBN 9781406371710
(Age: 9-12) Themes: Science Fiction, Adventures, Codes and
ciphers, Secrecy. Norwegian film director Bobbie Peers' "William
Wenton and the Secret Portal", the second novel is darker and
slower-paced than "William
Wenton and the luridium thief". He takes us back to familiar
surroundings at a more hostile and locked in Institute for
Post-Human Research. William's body is filled with a metallic
substance, 49% liridium which enables him to solve the world's most
difficult puzzles. There are evil forces at play, and a mysterious
women with a mechanical hand who needs William's powers to open a
special cryptoportal in the Himalayas.
When William appears on television ready for a competition to solve
The Difficulty puzzle, he suddenly experiences a powerful seizure
and is unable to continue. Sent home, he is crushed by his loss.
When his grandfather, a master cryptographer, collects him and
deposits him at the Institute, only to leave again, William's
worries continue. The Institute has changed dramatically, more like
a jail than a vibrant research facility. His room is a prison, with
steel bars on the windows and he must be accompanied everywhere by a
porter-bot. Guard-bots carry passivators to stop William from
searching the buildings and grounds for clues to his illness and
reasons for the changes at the now hostile environment. Even his
friend Iscia now a field assistant has altered; she even works with
his enemy Freddy.
When the mysterious woman appears in his room and tries to kidnap
William, he determines to find answers. Stealthy forays into the
basement where he discovers a mysterious man encased in a steel slab
and into the gardens to a secret underground space leave William
with more questions than answers. With Ischia's help and Freddy's
interference William sets consequences in motion when he handles a
powerful orb that destroys many artefacts stored in The Depository.
His actions open a cryptoportal in the Himalayas allowing for the
evil woman Cornelia Strangler to steal an entire cryonic storage
unit. Can William save the earth from the return of vast quantities
of luridium that will infect all human and destroy life on Earth?
Bobbie Peer's second science-fiction novel has a darker quality to
the plot and setting that makes it difficult at times to make sense
of William's struggles and his decisions. His sense of loneliness
and constant struggles are confronting, more darkness than
lightness. More code-breaking and cyphers would have helped as well.
"William Wenton and the Secret Portal" is suitable for readers who
enjoy futuristic fiction filled with gadgetry and alternate forms of
travel.
Rhyllis Bignell