Crystal Doors; Island Realm, Rebecca Moesta

This first novel in a new trilogy finds 14-year-old cousins Gwen and Vic accidentally transported through a magical crystal door to the island Elantya. They are soon caught in a tempest of ancient magic and fierce battles all connected to ancient feuds and the cousins’ own mysterious roots.

Fourteen-year-old cousins, Vic and Gwen, are almost nothing alike. Where Vic is fun-loving and outgoing, Gwen is scientifically minded, with an analytical nature. The dynamic between the two happens to be one of the larger parts of the novel. Older by a mere 5 hours, Gwen is the self-appointed person in charge, which, Vic uses to his advantage to rile her up. Their fathers, Carlton Arthur Pierce “Cap”, and Reginald Pierce “Rip” were twins, who stumbled upon Fyera and Kyara (the children’s mothers) on a dig in the Yucantan Peninsula. They were smitten. Eventually, they were married, and each couple produced a child. Now, due to a mysterious accident, Gwen’s parents are gone, and Vic’s mother disappeared soon after. Now, its just Cap, and the cousins against the world!

Here enters the plot-twist, a near disaster at Ocean Kingdoms (foresight into the next novel perhaps?) leads Cap to act strangely. He informs them they will be leaving, and a fitful night follows for Gwen and Vic. When they wake, their solarium is full of mirrors, crystals, and prisms. All of a sudden, their world gets a little bit weirder.

The kids fall through a “light”, or “door”. Landing, in a place neither of them recognise. They’re informed this, is a Crystal door, and they have landed on the island of Elantya, where all such doors unify. It is here we meet the majority of the supporting cast in this series, Lyssandra, an interpreter and a telepath; Ali el Sharif, a novice at the Citadel who comes from the flying city of Irrakesh; and Tiaret, a young warrior girl who came from Afrik to also study at the Citadel.

As Gwen and Vic come to terms with their new situation, they find that the Elantyan’s are at war, with a race called ‘Merlons’. These creatures, are of the sea. Gwen and Vic are forced to work together in order to save their new friends, fighting against a new enemy and even, enemies within.

The first of the trilogy, Island Realm is entertaining and different to what you may have read before. On reveiw it has a similar concept to the Firebird Trilogy, yet, somehow is created in an entirely different contemporary conceptual nature.