Review of The City of the Golden Sun

By Cheryl McCann for Review-Books.com

The City of the Golden Sun is a sequel to The Fisherman's Son reviewed earlier. To recap, Elden, the dolphin had taken Wiley O'Mara to Keegan, son of the ancient King, to five other boys in a lost city under the sea. He rescued the boys after fighting the Fire Beast.

When Wiley's mother was living, she told him stories as she knitted. She told him about The Beast in the Forest. She gave Wiley the description as a huge beast with three glowing eyes and he was bear-like in that he could run on his hind legs or run on all fours. She told him not to go into the forest because young children would not be able to outrun the Beast since he was as fast as a wolf. But Wiley managed to escape the Beast which made Wiley ponder that perhaps at 12 years old he was no longer a child.

Wiley's father drinks and is sometimes violent. A woman named Mrs. Bannon usually took care of Wiley after his mother's death. His father was gone a lot.

Wiley returns to the house with five other boys to get food but they also need clothing for Kingston, Arthur and Neil. He has a plan of going to the orphanage in the village to get clothes. After doing so, he will check with Elden for their next step to get the boys back to their city. Wiley explains his plans on their way to the village. They pass through the magical forest and they will meet Lucinda who helped Wiley after his mother's death. The forest has a magical lake with healing qualities.

As Wiley is taking the boys through the forest, he remembers his earlier experiences with the bear cub and myth about The Beast in the Forest. He wondered if the bear cub would remember that Wiley had killed its mother and was it larger?

The boys discover the strawberry patch and all enjoyed the very red and delicious fruit eating like it was their last meal. Wiley retold the story of finding Lucinda. She had given him a cup engraved with the words: "Drink deeply by land or sea. Earth comes only once." Lucinda told Wiley to go down to the beach with the cup and show it to Elden, the dolphin. When Elden saw the cup, he took Wiley to all of the boys in the underwater city. The boys meet Lucinda and she tells them to go back to the ocean to the beach and show Elden the cup to find out what to do next.

After spending all day at the beach and waving the cup under water and no sign of Elden, the boys bed down for the night. Elden showed himself to Neil and explained that he needed to tell Keegan and Wiley to meet on the beach after sunrise. Keegan was to dunk the golden cup under the water. Elden said once he saw the golden cup he would take all of the boys back to their city under the ocean.

Join in these boys' adventure of how they get back to their city.

Opinion by Reviewer:

The City of the Golden Sun is beautifully written and paints the picture with words and the imagination takes over. It is sure to delight young readers over and over with its rich adventure tale. I highly recommend it. Look for the next book in the sequel.

Copyright (c) 2008 Marilyn Peake