Young Jack Trilogy:
Apologies, I initially wanted to talk about these books individually, but after I read the first one I just jammed through the next two. And after that I went down with a few illnesses that messed me up for three weeks. After that period of time, the three books kind of blend together.
I was a kid once, but just once though. It's fascinating how universal youth is. Even material aimed and starring essentially kids, can move adults, as they are taken back to a time of their own youth. It's is a nostalgia trip (even if my own coming of age was in the 90's), echoing The Goonies and E.T., flashing me back to a time of riding bikes, imagination, and adventure all within a 5-10 mile radius. Heck, Netflix hit Stranger Things is fueled on this type of nostalgia, so clearly there's an audience for it.
I'm not quite sure if I am that audience. The story never edges far enough from the YA line for me, characters pop in and pop out (much which I presume are winks and nods to the future of Jack) without much purpose for a new reader but to add to the mythology of the world. If I had more familiarity, I might even dislike that, as every instance I've seen do that with prequels or origins, makes the world feel a lot smaller, shrinks the scope. But right now it's entertaining in a, "oohh I wonder what role they'll play in the future." The difficulty is without the deep knowledge of what's to come, it's hard to get a grasp on what's superfluous and what's relevant (maybe it's all relevant!).
Nonetheless, as much as I hate to admit it, the Young Jack stories got to me at times. The friendship between Weezy and Jack (and Eddie), in particular, felt genuine. It harkens back to a time of my own youth, where feelings become complex, ideas of revenge, loyalty, and compassion are areas that you just begin to grasp and you begin to decide what type of person you become. Jack learns some neat skills (lockpicking I'm sure will come in handy), gets exposed to some crazy secrets (some within his own family, his dad during wartime), and begins to see how crazy the world really is (all the weird stuff, the pyramid cage, the embodiment of death roaming around, the buried pre-history city, freaking Ernst.)
I have the highest appreciation of Teen Jack maturing, by experiencing a world that is not only stranger than he initially thought, but also darker and strikingly gray than the black and white world of his youth. A teenage Jack being slowly exposed to more and more mature, and frightening topics as each book progresses, (the dead body in book 1, the abusive father of a family friend in book 2, and the attempted date rape of a friend, and the murder of a highschool colleague.)
[INDENT]
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Things for me to remember (Spoilers abound):- Teen Jack Series - Secret Histories/Secret Circles/Secret Vengeance: All three books takes place near the Pine Barrens...Weird Shit happens there. The Order (a freemason/illuminati style organization) mentions possession of the Compendium. Jack and Weezy end up flooding a pre-history city hidden under The Order's clubhouse. Erskine with the dat-tay-vao power is a gloved drunk who is friends with a lady (Cleavenger) people associate as a folk-tale witch who has a strange three legged dog. Erskine uses his power to heal one of Jack's friends, but it takes a lot of out of him and he gets amnesia. Ernst shows up in the Pines and says he's an "actuator," he seems to hold a high level position in The Order. I'm sure I'm forgetting a bunch as there's so many people roaming in an out of these stories.
Previous Stories:
[SPOILER]
- Dat-Tay-Vao: Dat-Tay-Vao is an ancient power, so far it includes healing by just placing the hands on wounds (no self-healing), that is stored in an individual but transferred from individual to individual at the time of death. Found in Vietnam (?) and ending up with an American soldier named Erskine. I imagine we see him pop up later in the US.
- Reborn: The Adversary (Rasalom? or something greater?), found its way into trapped into Jim, a clone born in the 40's (timeline matches up to events in The Keep and Rasalom's death). Jim impregnated wife Carol and thus the Adversary found his way into the embryo (oh hey, Demonsong reference?!). Carol's baby is alive and well in the womb, protected by Jim's adopted father, Jonah, an agent of The One. With the Adversary surviving, his influence spreads across the world. A supporting character, Mr. Vielleur shares a striking "resemblance" to Glaeken, except this time aging, and referenced having completed his mission.
- The Keep: Rasalom (Molasar) was kept in the Keep as a form of prison for all this time, has an unending hunger for death. Rasalom disintegrated into specks of dust in the climax, supposedly killed, yet Glaeken was able to survive (more human this time), so I assume Rasalom was able to survive as well.
- Aryans & Absinthe: Ernst helped Hitler survive an assassination attempt committed by his friend. Even though he profited off the economic and political chaos of Germany and was faced with an embodiment of evil with disastrous consequences, he still stops the assassination. Who is this man, Ernst?
- Compendium of Srem: The Compendium is indestructible and still out and about/ never buried and contains information about pre-Biblical times. I expect this to show up again.
- Demonsong: Rasalom was creating an embryo for himself to be reborn in before he was thwarted by Glaeken, he's still around out there having disappeared.
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Next up: "Faces"
Ranking Secret History Stories:
- The Keep
- Reborn
- The Compendium of Srem
- Aryans and Absinthe
- Jack - Secret Vengeance
- Jack - Secret Circles
- Jack - Secret Histories
- Dat-Tay-Vao
- Demonsong