The Challenger by Taran Matharu

Trapped on an alien world, Cade and his friends have been waiting for the next round of the life or death Contest to begin. When they leave their safe haven to train for it, their paths diverge wildly...

I'll be honest; I went into this expecting more of what we had in the first book. I'd have been perfectly happy with that! It was good, exciting fun. This one has a completely different type of story line and adds several layers to what's going on, though.

I still think these are a shade below Taran's Summoner books, but only a shade below. This one is more complex than the first, with a lot of things going on on various levels. Taran is able to keep a lot of things going while only following one character, which is very clever.

I was expecting things to stop a couple of chapters before they did, and now I'm really worried about what might happen in the third book! I don't know where things can go from here, but I'm looking forward to finding out.

US Cover                                             UK Cover

CADE CARTER HAS BEEN CHOSEN

In a realm of monsters and warriors, Cade is an unwilling contender in a deadly tournament controlled by the brutal alien overlord Abaddon.

Cade may have won the first round but the fight isn’t over yet. For his next battle he must duel a seven-foot-tall, clawed monster - the reigning champion of an alien race.

LOSING WILL LEAD TO EARTH’S DESTRUCTION

Desperate for anything that may give him an advantage, Cade sets off on an expedition into the jungle to scavenge weaponry to help him win. But there he is captured by gladiators, and before he knows it he finds himself participating in a deadly new game where the prize is his freedom.

ROUND TWO IS ABOUT TO BEGIN …