Slathbog's Gold (Adventurers Wanted Series #1)

The Book that Will Get Boys Hooked on Reading!!!

My 12 year old son is a reluctant reader. I acquired an advanced reading copy of Adventurer's Wanted: Slathbog's Gold and gave it to him. I thought the dragon on the front cover would peak his interest. It did! I was very pleased and shocked that it kept his interest. I kept waiting for him to get tired of the story or tell me that he didn't want to keep reading. But I only heard the opposite. He loved the adventure, the weapons, and the treasure-finding. The more he talked the more I realized this is a real boys book. There is no romance here. Just a band of eight adventurers, including a fifteen-year-old named Alex who is destined to be a true wizard on a quest to find and claim the enormous hoard of Slathbog the Red--a legendary evil dragon. Seriously, I think there is something in the male DNA intrinsic to treasure-hunting. And there's lots of treasure to be found in Slathbog's Gold. On several occasions, my son would tell me what the adventurers were finding: precious gems and gold ooins and true silver weapons. I would constantly have to tell him to turn off his light and go to bed and he'd reply with, "Okay, just let me finish this chapter with the troll or the bandits or wraiths or whatever exciting opponent he was fighting next and the treasure associated with it. Thank you, M.L. Forman, for writing a book that connected to a twelve-year-old boy. I knew when he chose reading this book over playing his video games, it was a winner.

3 out of 4 people found this review helpful.

Highly unoriginal, dull characters, and what should be a massively-inflated economy.

Instantly captured by the mythological, fire-breathing, over-sized lizard on the front cover, you might just make a great mistake from which you may never recover. If reading this book to your kids, you may just be saved from an overwhelmingly-visceral reaction to lose your lunch by the fact that you're sharing the pain with your kids. If not, soul-scars and a mental institution may be your next trip. Not only does Slathbog's Gold lack solid characters and an interesting and/or deep plot, if this book can be considered the stereotype for all Fantasy books, "nerds" around the globe are in serious trouble.
I enjoy reading and writing Fantasy and Sci-Fi, as well as analyzing good characters. In Slathbog's Gold, there are characters who make Flat Stanley appear deeper than the Atlantic Trench. The story's main protagonist, a certain Alexander Taylor, is about as realistic as my chances of spontaneously growing to tremendous size, and rampaging throughout Downtown Tokyo. He's too "holier-than-thou," a paragon of virtue, a pillar of purity, a puddle of putrefying pus.
How many fifteen-year old boys have you seen that are thick as ten (thousand) short posts, and sets out on his adventure, already a perfect human? He's probably too wonder-stricken with his sojourn into a magical world (where adventurers sign up to a potentially-deadly trip, where they happily frolic through Mordor-ish landscapes to slay the evil, EVIL dragon), to ask basic questions about the land.
Another reason for my wellspring of ire is Alex's involvement with the plot in the first two books. The whole universe appears to revolve around him. Who is the one chosen as the final member of a dragonslayin' team? Alex. Who is chosen by an incredibly powerful sword? Alex. Who has the potential to become one of the greatest wizards ever? Alex. Whatever next? A prophecy proclaiming him as "The Frozen One," or some such stereotype? Speaking of which, stereotypes are too commonly used in this book, such as anything that hasn't happened for 100 or 1,000 years. Whatever happened to a nice, exact figure, like 2,928 years?
The other, less universally-inclined characters, such as the elf, Arconn, or the dwarf, Thrang, have practically no solid background. Most every character are composed of a single facet, whereas in other books, say, Kitty Jones, from Stroud's Bartimaeus Trilogy, can be equated with a glorious and magnificent jewel. Even the main antagonist, Slathbog, has no real reason for his death warrant apart from "He's EVIL! E-V-I-L!" Is this the inherent nature of all dragons with no comprehensive back-story, or is Slathbog lacking sentience? Unwarranted animosity, that's what this is! Thinking rationally, what if Slathbog had been "evil" in his past due to a nearby village slaughtering Slathbog's relatives/young?
There is only one original creature in Slathbog's Gold: the bi-headed messenger, the "geeb." I thought I had a Fantasy book in my hands, not a Dr. Seuss book! Other creatures are variations of widely used fantastical/mythological creatures, albeit accompanied by very little description. I mean, come on; an elf (Arconn) is first described as a man with pointed ears and a happy, glowing face, if I remember correctly. Such lack of description is a major issue that encompasses the whole book, making for a very simple, easy read.
But apart from the bad, this book isn't bad reading material

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

AWESOME!!!

I didn't appreciate the review that said this was just like "The hobbit" and that Forman broke all the Fantasy rules. In Fantasy there are dragons Dwarves elves etc.... I'm sorry but the Lord of the rings Tolkien did not make up those up. All Fantasy's have them. This is an Original story with awesome characters!!! I enjoyed this book more than I did any of the the Lord of the rings because of it's depth and right to the point simplicity writing style. I think some fantasy writers get way too much into detail that it makes it boring and it takes away from the story and the action. Ml Forman does a great job in pulling his audience into an adventure that is Magical! It's like watching a movie in my head!

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

Awesome!!

This is a great solid story. From the first page i felt like i was in the book. A lot of action and a lot of friendship.

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

wonderful book

awesome the excitement just keeps going

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

one of the best books i have read

i have had the book two times alredy so would highly recommended to all both girls and boys.

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

Fun, but unoriginal story

I have to admit that I like this book. It's a fun read and fans of fantasy fiction will eat this book up. It's something you can burn through in a couple days, easy reading, and such. There's not much in-depth detail in the book. It's what I call a very, VERY simple read.
The characters are very flat, predictable, and sometimes boring. Alex Taylor, the lead character, had no backstory, description, or motive. I would have liked to see a more realistic, in depth, three dimensional main character.
What really annoyed me about this book was how much Forman smacked off of Tolkien. Arconn was literally Legolas, the wizard, Slathbog was a wanna-be Smaug and the whole plotline...dwarves, elves, quests was so Tolkienesque, I thought I was reading "The Hobbit" all over again. It had the same story line and had maybe 2% originality.
I myself am an avid fantasy writer, and I can't stand cliched fantasy. What this book did was break EVERY single rule of cliched fantasy and put it in one 300+ paged book. The only original thing in this story was the expandable bag. Other than that, it's a complete copy off "the Hobbit".

The one thing that really annoyed me about this book was ALEX TAYLOR!!!! He is the most slow, dense, stupid character I have EVER seen. Everything that comes out of his mouth is some dumb question that's OBVIOUS if he'd just use his brains to think it over."I don't believe this is happening to me, but it must be real!" Or "What is an ice room?" Or "Hunt game? What kind of game?" "What's a dragon?" "What's my name, again?" (Just kidding on the last few, but it's that terrible.
Well DUH, Sherlock. Alex makes me want to scream. He's so gosh darn stupid. His I.Q. is no higher than 4.5

1 out of 2 people found this review helpful.

Great book.

This is a great book. It took me a little to pick up but after I pick the story I could not put the book down. Can't wait fir the next book.

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

Excellent book!!!!

This book is wonderful! I can't wait for the rest of the series1

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

slathbog's Gold is amazing.

This book hold's your attention and would be great in any library.

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

Great book with lots of adventure

I realy enjoyed the parallel between the good and evil. And the life lessons thatcan be learned even from a fairytale.

Best book I've ever read. Very unique, very entertaining, and it

Best book I've ever read. Very unique, very entertaining, and it is very creative. I HIGHLY reccommend this book to those that love fiction.

Amazing!!!

I love this seires, how some people could give it bad reviews, I will never know. The characters are amazing and I feel like I'm right there experiencing it! I hope someday I can write like M.L Forman!

Awesome book! Great Adventure!

This book is more than just an adventure book. It filled with people of great "honor". It teaches what it means to be "honorable" and how to be "honorable". The communication between the characters is very impressive. This book teaches about honor, communication, friendship and teamwork as well as respect for others, fairness to all and doing what is right. Of course, the adventure, the danger and the friendship made it most enjoyable too: magical swords, fire breathing dragon, the shadow of evil and fortune telling oracles.

H hhfc

Uvdj

So Much Like 'The Hobbit' It Was Kind Of Fun

Slathbog's Gold. Awesome cover, easy read, but unoriginal. Of course, I was expecting it to be unoriginal. I only bought the book because the description on the back cover sounded so much like 'The Hobbit' that I just had to see how much it was like it. Yes, it was very much like it storywise. I was almost laughing at all the similarities, and it was enjoyable to compare. The characters, though, were what I didn't like about it. I would have been fine with the rest of the book, but the characters were very bland and shallow. To me, characters will make or break a book, so they have to be well thought out and identifiable. The main character, Alex Taylor, was so clueless through the whole thing. He was always asking someone to explain something simple to him. Then the rest of the characters seemed to have only one personality trait about them, and there were a few of them that I forgot were even in the story until they suddenly popped up out of the blue.

I wouldn't say this book is bad, since the writing was actually pretty good, but it didn't have a lot of substance. There was one scene I particularly enjoyed though, and that was the part with the wraiths. They should have been the main villains for this story, or at least should have had a larger part.

To the person that said they hate his book nd everyone else who does

If you dont like this book it i beyond your cmprehention . This is one of the books i couldnt put down an will read over and over again. Everythin came alive. I had dreams evry nigt i read this sowing what happened like a movie. You should read it again when you are a couple years older nd your mind gets sharper. This book is wnderful. Mabet fantacy isnt your thing. Mabey you like other genras. If this is the case you should have gotten another book.

Bodacious

This book is my favorite book


-D

To the idots who disrespect this book.

All the carecters, creatures, and story entirley creative.

Briliant but...

Brilliant but a bit 2-d and flat but the basic plotline and not bad for a first-timer. (•__•)