Beyond the Door

***FROM SCHOOL LIBRARY JOURNAL GRADE 5-9***Scott Shaffer, brighter than his high school classmates and emotionally numbed by his father's desertion, spends most of his time in the closed-stack physics section of his county library. Following a mysterious red-robed man, Tomeas, Scott unlocks the door of a dusty, unused study room and enters the pre-industrial world of Gale'tin. Caught up in Tomeas's scheme for bringing technology to Gale'tin's unwilling inhabitants, Scott steals equipment from his school's physics lab and participates in cruel experiments. Meanwhile, Tully Markovic, a classmate, pursuing the indifferent Scott, finds her way to Gale'tin, where she quickly makes friends. After she is kidnapped and enslaved by Tomeas's accomplices in a firey underground mine, Scott is forced to confront the evils of uncontrolled intellect. This theme is spelled out more clearly than in LeGuin's subtle and far more complex A Wizard of Earthsea (Houghton, 1968). Although there are moments when the characters serve the plot and the imaginary world is a bit sketchy, readers, reluctant or not, will enjoy the fast-paced action and alternating points of view between Tully and Scott. Recommended where additional fantasies are needed. --Margaret A. Chang, Buxton School, Williamstown, MA Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.