Jake Ransom and the Skull King's Shadow (Jake Ransom Series #1)

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More About This Book

Overview

When a mysterious envelope arrives for Jake Ransom, he and his older sister, Kady are plunged into a gripping chain of events. An artifact found by their parents—on the expedition from which they never returned—leads Jake and Kady to a strange world inhabited by a peculiar mix of long-lost civilizations, a world that may hold the key to their parents' disappearance.

But even as they enter the gate to this extraordinary place, savage grackyls soar across the sky, diving to attack. Jake's new friends, the pretty Mayan girl Marika and the Roman Pindor, say the grackyls were created by an evil alchemist—the Skull King. And as Jake stuggles to find a way home, it becomes obvious that what the Skull King wants most is Jake and Kady—dead or alive.

Blockbuster author of THE JUDAS STRAIN and THE LAST ORACLE, James Rollins brings all the twists and chills he's famous for to this breathlessly paced adventure—his first book about Jake Ransom. Fans of Indiana Jones, Alex Rider, and Maximum Ride will flock to this explosively entertaining adventure.

Editorial Reviews

From Barnes & Noble
At first, the arrival of the envelope simply puzzles Jake Ransom, but it doesn't take long before he realizes that its contents might help him and his sister, Kady, finally unravel the mystery behind their parents' disappearance. What he doesn't yet know is that the discovery will catapult these inexperienced siblings into a weird world populated by citizens of many long-lost civilizations. An evil alchemist and high adventure.
Publishers Weekly

This exciting time-travel adventure opens three years after Jake Ransom's archeologist parents have disappeared in the Yucatán, leaving him and his sister, Kady, nothing but their journals and a Mayan coin, broken in half. The siblings receive an invitation to attend an exhibition of Mayan antiquities at the British Museum, and are soon after catapulted into the prehistoric past where ancient Mayans, Romans, Egyptians, Vikings and even Neanderthals have joined together to do battle with the Skull King, a creature so evil that he only appears wrapped in shadows, "as if the darkness were scared of what lay hidden at its heart and attempted to hide the horror from the world." Jake, an Indiana Jones in the making, and Kady, a cheerleader who learns to channel her inner Viking, fight the Skull King to a draw, discovering clues about their missing parents. In this series opener, Rollins (The Last Oracle) presents a wide range of interesting historical information while telling a rollicking good story that should please a wide range of readers-and maybe even some of his adult fans. Ages 10-up. (May)Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

More Reviews (1) Fewer Reviews
From The Critics
Jake and Kady are plunged into a gripping chain of events when an artifact found by their archaeologist parents may lead them to uncovering their disappearance. They set out on an expedition to a strange world in order to solve the mystery. The events are exciting and sometimes unexpected. The author has created the young character of Jake Ransom—who—like the Horowitz books lead the reader on great and almost impossible adventures. The female characters are just as good and add great interaction with Jake and others. It has it all—adventures, danger, exploration, discovery, excitement, history, great characters and much more. Teens want a book that keeps their attention all the way through and one that is easily readable. This story is most appealing and with its great cover, it seems to have it all. The format of the print and spacing are just right. The reader will be watching anxiously for another book by this author. Reviewer: Naomi Butler

Product Details

  • ISBN-13: 9780061473791
  • Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
  • Publication date: 4/28/2009
  • Pages: 416
  • Sales rank: 204,551
  • Age range: 10 - 14 Years
  • Lexile: 680L (what's this?)
  • Series: Jake Ransom Series, #1
  • Product dimensions: 5.80 (w) x 8.40 (h) x 1.60 (d)

Meet the Author

James Rollins
James Rollins
Spelunker, scuba diver, and all-around adventure junkie James Rollins sold his veterinary practice in Sacramento, California, to concentrate full-time on writing -- his thirst for thrills clearly informing his bestselling novels, including Black Order, Subterranean and The Judas Strain.

Biography

James Rollins is the New York Times, USA Today and Publishers Weekly bestselling author of Black Order, Map of Bones and other adventure thrillers. He was born in Chicago and grew up in Ontario, Canada, and St. Louis, Missouri. He graduated with honors from the University of Missouri with a degree in veterinary medicine. And like most veterinarians, he presently shares his home with a Golden Retriever, a Dachshund, and a sixty-five year old parrot named Igor. Rollins currently practices in Northern California, and when not writing or working in his veterinary practice, he can often be found underground or underwater as an amateur spelunker and scuba diver. These hobbies have helped in the creation of his earlier books Subterranean, Deep Fathom, Amazonia, and Sandstorm. His thriller, Black Order, skyrocketed to the top of bestseller lists across the country, winning the author countless new fans, and was proclaimed by People magazine as one of last summer's "hottest reads." Map of Bones was chosen by Publishers Weekly as one of the most likely to win over Dan Brown's faithful audience, and the New York Times rated the book as one the summer's top crowd pleasers.

Author biography courtesy of HarperCollins.

Good To Know

Some fun and fascinating outtakes from our interview with Rollins:

"I often get asked if I still practice veterinary medicine. While I don't practice full-time, I still do volunteer. I work with a group that traps stray cats, brings them to the shelter, where I spend a day spaying and neutering them. It's basically eight hours of removing genitalia. It's a hobby."

"I am a TV junkie. I have two Tivos and they are constantly full."

"My first job was to flip pizzas. I once got a pie spinning that was ten feet across. I had to spin it on my back to keep it going. Yet, I still love pizza."

"Two hobbies I love -- caving and scuba diving -- are also essential research for my novels. Case in point:

I've always been an avid cave explorer, from the vast systems in Missouri to the lava tubes of Hawaii to the tighter squeezes of the California foothills. But one of my most frightening episodes also allowed me to better describe claustrophobia in my novels. While climbing out of the fairly technical wild cavern, involving lots of rope work, I managed to jam myself midway up a narrow vertical chute. Hung up on my ascending gear midway up the chute, I found myself unable to move up or down. My chest was squeezed between two walls, my left knee turned the wrong way. I could not maneuver, and there was not enough room to get a rescue climber to me. I was trapped. I remember the team leader, leaning down from above, shining his helmet lamp at me. ‘You either find a way to un-jam yourself, or you stay there forever.'

So over the course of a long hour -- wriggling, sweating, cursing, and clawing -- I managed to creep a millimeter at a time out of the jam. After this event, I had a better understanding for panic and the determination born of pure desperation, essential ingredients for to writing thrilling fiction.

But spelunking through caves was not my only ‘research' lesson. Two decades ago, I also took up scuba diving and went on dive trips all around the world: Monterey Bay, Hawaii, South Pacific, Australia. I particularly remember one trip to the Great Barrier Reef in Australia. I was informed by the dive master to beware of the many hazards found in the region. ‘On land, Australia has seven of the ten deadliest snakes. The seas are worse. Box jellyfish can kill in minutes. Local sea snakes are some of the most toxic. But worst of all is the stone fish. It looks like a stone, but its spines are loaded with paralytic poison. So be careful what you touch.'

And down we all went, buddied up in pairs, enthusiastic and excited. I dropped toward the reef and adjust my buoyancy until I'm floating just above the reef. All around spread amazing sights: giant clams, a flurry of colored fish, an astounding variety of coral. But I miscalculated my buoyancy, my weight shifted, and I planted a hand into the sand to stabilize my tumble, careful of the razor-sharp coral. Inches from my thumb, a jagged rock suddenly sprouted fins and swam away. I met the gaze of my buddy diver. His wide eyes firmed up the identification. The deadly stone fish. And I had almost slapped my hand on its back. As the fish scurried away, I understood at that exact moment how little Nature cared about the life of a scuba-diving novelist. Down here, Nature ruled. We were only visitors.

This mix of respect and terror is brought to life in my latest novel, The Judas Strain."

    1. Hometown:
      Sacramento, California
    1. Date of Birth:
      August 20, 1961
    2. Place of Birth:
      Chicago, Illinois

Read an Excerpt

Jake Ransom and the Skull King's Shadow

Chapter One

School Daze

From his school desk, Jake Ransom willed the second hand on the wall clock to sweep away the final minutes of his sixth-period history class.

Only another twenty-four minutes and he would be free.

Away from Middleton Prep for a whole week!

Then he could finally get some real work done. He had already mapped out his plans for each day of the weeklong vacation break: to explore the rich vein of shellfish fossils he had discovered in the rock quarry behind his house, to attend a signing by one of his favorite physicists, who had a new book out called Strange Quarks and Deeper Quantum Mysteries, to listen to the fourth lecture by a famed anthropologist on the cannibal tribes of Borneo (who knew sautéed eyeballs tasted sweet?)—and he had so much more planned.

All he needed now was the school's last bell to ring to free him from the prison that was eighth grade.

But escape would not come that easy.

The history teacher, Professor Agnes Trout, clapped her bony hands together and drew back his sullen attention. She stood to one side of her desk. As gaunt as a stick of chalk, and just as dry and dusty, the teacher peered over her fingertips at the class.

"We have time for one more report," she announced.

Jake rolled his eyes. Oh, great...

The class was no happier. Groans spread around the room, which only hardened her lips into a firmer line.

"We could make it two more reports and stay after the last bell," she warned.

The class quickly quieted.

ProfessorTrout nodded and turned to her desk. One finger traced a list of names and moved to the next victim in line to present an oral report. Jake found it amusing to watch her thin shoulders pull up closer to her ears. He knew whose name was next in line alphabetically, but it had somehow caught the teacher by surprise.

She straightened with a soured twist to her lips. "It seems we will hear next from Jacob Ransom."

A new round of groans rose. The teacher did not even bother quieting them down. She plainly regretted her decision to squeeze in one more report before the holiday break. But after almost a year in her class, Jake knew Professor Agnes Trout was a stickler for order and rules. She cared more about the memorization of dates and names than any real understanding of the flow of history. So once committed to her course of action, she had no choice but to wave him to the front of the class.

Jake left his books and notes behind. He had his oral report set to memory. Empty-handed, crossing toward the blackboard, he felt the class's eyes on him. Even though he had skipped a grade last year, he was still the second tallest boy in his class. Unfortunately it wasn't always a good thing to stand out in a crowd, especially in middle school, especially after skipping a grade. Still, Jake kept his shoulders straight as he crossed to the board. He ignored the eyes staring at him. Not one to set fashion trends, Jake wore what he found first that morning (clean or not). He ended up with scuffed jeans, a tattered pair of high-top sneakers, a faded green polo shirt, and of course the mandatory navy school jacket with the school's insignia embroidered in gold on the breast pocket. Even his sandy blond hair failed to match the current razored trend. Instead it hung lanky over his forehead.

Like his father's had been.

Or at least it matched the last picture Jake had of the senior Ransom, now gone three years, vanished into the Central American jungle. Jake still carried that photograph, taped to the inside of his notebook. It showed his parents, Richard and Penelope Ransom, smiling with goofy happiness, dressed in khaki safari outfits, holding up a Mayan glyph stone. The photo's edges were still blackened and curled from the fire that burned through their hilltop camp.

Taped below it was a scrap of parcel paper. On it, written in his father's handwriting, was Jake's name along with the family address for their estate here in North Hampshire, Connecticut. The package had arrived six weeks after the bandits had attacked his parents' camp.

That had been three years ago.

It was the last and only contact from his folks.

Jake fingered the thin cord around his neck as he reached the front of the class. Through his cotton shirt, he felt the small object that hung from the cord and rested flat against his chest. A last gift from his parents. Its reassuring touch helped center him.

To the side, the teacher cleared her throat. "Class, Mr. Ransom will be teaching us... well... I mean to say his oral report will be on..."

"My report," he said, cutting her off, "is on Mayan astronomical techniques in relation to the precession of the equinoxes."

"Yes, yes, of course. Equinoxes. Very interesting, Mr. Ransom." The teacher nodded, perhaps a bit too vigorously.

Jake suspected Professor Agnes Trout didn't fully understand what the report was about. She backed toward her desk, as if fearful he might ask her a question. Like everyone else, she must have had heard the story of Mr. Rushbein, the geometry teacher. How after Jake had disproved one of the teacher's theorems in front of his whole class, he had suffered a nervous breakdown. Now all the teachers at Middleton Prep looked at Jake with a glint of worry. Who would be next?

Jake picked up a piece of chalk and wrote some calculations on the board. "Today I'll be showing how the Maya were able to predict such events as the solar eclipses, like the one that will occur next Tuesday—"

A balled-up piece of paper struck the board near his hand and caused the piece of chalk in his fingers to snap with a loud squeak on the board...

Jake Ransom and the Skull King's Shadow. Copyright © by James Rollins. Reprinted by permission of HarperCollins Publishers, Inc. All rights reserved. Available now wherever books are sold.
Customer Reviews
Average Rating 4.5
( 76 )

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  • Anonymous

    Posted January 25, 2012

    Fun read

    Truely enjoyed this young adult title from James Rollins. While not as good as some of his adult fiction, I did enjoy the read. I will definately check out future titles of Jake Ransom.

    1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

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  • Anonymous

    Posted October 19, 2011

    Highly recommend

    The author is very articulate. Due to his graphic descriptions, it takes gut sometime to keep reading. Very well done. Any of his books are a great read!

    1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

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  • Posted March 18, 2011

    Great Book

    Its not like his other novels.. but i love how he captures the history entitled to the story. Great stuff!!!

    1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

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  • Posted October 28, 2010

    more from this reviewer

    Fun Archaeo-SciFi-Fantasy

    My 7-year-old is really enjoying this book. Me, not so much, but I'll rate based on the target audience.

    I'm a James Rollins fan for the most part. I enjoy his stories which always move at a fast pace, are very well written, have a solid amount of viable science and history to make things believable, and have characters deep enough to sustain interest. Jake Ransom is no different, but adds more of a fantasy angle.

    The book is definitely written towards young adults...maybe 6th grade and up. My son's in 2nd and certainly wouldn't be able to read it on his own, but he loves the adventure and mystery that Rollins strongly builds in each chapter. Think of Jake Ransom as a young Indiana Jones - that's pretty much the pull of the story and characters.

    1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

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  • Anonymous

    Posted February 7, 2012

    I have a bf named jake

    Luv him <3

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  • Anonymous

    Posted November 3, 2011

    This book is the shit

    0 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

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  • Posted July 10, 2011

    Best book (almost)

    No text was provided for this review.

  • Anonymous

    Posted June 27, 2011

    I like it

    I read this book at school and i enjoyed readin it

    0 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

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  • Posted June 10, 2011

    Is+it+good%3F

    +My+son+is+fourth+grade+and+I+wanna+see+if+he+can+read+it.

    0 out of 2 people found this review helpful.

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  • Anonymous

    Posted May 5, 2010

    I Also Recommend:

    Liked it.

    Great book by this author.

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  • Posted October 8, 2009

    more from this reviewer

    I Also Recommend:

    great story!!

    The book was a great adventure... I read it with my daughter and she was just completely absorbed by the story! Can't wait until the sequel arrives so we can see what happens next!!!

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  • Anonymous

    Posted October 5, 2009

    My sons favorite book!!!

    Bought this for my 10 year old son. He said that it was the best book he has ever read, finished it in less than 3 days. Liked it so much we gave it to the school library so that other kids could read it too.

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  • Anonymous

    Posted August 24, 2009

    good read

    I read it in two days!

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  • Posted August 16, 2009

    Fun

    This was a fun book to read. I can't wait until my nieces and nephews are old enough to read this book.

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  • Posted June 22, 2009

    A Good Spin on Indiana Jones

    Jake Ransom and his sister, Kady, have been on their own for three years since their parents' mysterious disappearance from an ancient Mayan archeological dig. The last present they received from their parents was two halves of an ancient Mayan coin, which arrived in the mail only weeks after their parents' disappearance. Not knowing the significance of their gift, both Jake and Kady never take off their coin, always wearing it around their necks as a necklace. Both children have different ways of coping with the loss of their parents. Jake has taken a keen interest in archeology and history in hopes of one day following his parent's footsteps. Kady, however, engrosses herself with as many after school activities as she can, charming her way up the social ladder as one of the "popular" girls.


    One day, Jake and Kady receive a letter from a museum in London, inviting them to travel overseas to attend a showing of the artifacts that were found by their parents. Curiosity getting the best of them, both Jake and Kady arrive in style at the opening of the show where their adventure begins. During a lunar eclipse, Jake and Kady find themselves magically transported to a place called Calypsos where they become friends with lost civilizations, including Romans, Mayans, Cave Men, and even Valkyries. They are irrevocably thrown into an ongoing war with a villain known as the Skull King.


    Leading the adventure in an Indiana Jones style prose, the author has created a story of a lost civilization that will not only surprise the reader, but which resolves in a wonderful beginning to a book series. This is definitely a book that people of all ages will enjoy, adults and children alike.

    www.fraichebleu.com

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  • Anonymous

    Posted June 13, 2009

    Wonderfully fun and interestng

    I love James Rollins books and I was absolutely intrigued with the possibility of this new ya book. I loved it. The characters, the plot,...everything was just fun and I did laugh at some antics.
    Way to go James Rollins!

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  • Posted June 4, 2009

    Experts Agree--Jake is a Winner

    I have been a fan of James Rollins for years now-especially the Sigma Force series-and eagerly await each new novel, but I was unsure of how Jake Ransom and the Skull King's Shadow, targeted at younger readers, would work out. The blurbs are a little misleading. Jake Ransom owes much more to Lord of the Rings, Narnia or Harry Potter than it does to Indiana Jones. While Jake's adventures are rooted in human history, the action takes place in an alternate universe inhabited by representatives of various human (and pre-human) cultures, as well as species from the paleo-historic record. In this strange reality, the laws of physics are bent and science is replaced by a type of alchemy associated with magical crystals. Most of the action takes place in the city of Calypsos, protected from roaming T-Rexes and the evil minions of the Skull King by a strange energy field, and there's even a couple chapters devoted to the local sports craze (a game that is sort of like polo, but played from dinos instead of ponies. The rousing climax of the novel is truly epic-a battle on the scale of something from Tolkien's imagination).

    Still, maybe I'm not the best person to judge this book. Last night as I was reading a chapter to my sons at bedtime, my youngest asked me: "What's the next book going to be about?"

    That has got to be the best recommendation any author can receive. Evidently, the results are in; my boys think Jake is a winner.

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  • Anonymous

    Posted January 12, 2011

    No text was provided for this review.

  • Anonymous

    Posted January 23, 2010

    No text was provided for this review.

  • Anonymous

    Posted December 30, 2011

    No text was provided for this review.

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