Fablehaven

Dang. Not as good as I remembered.

The series does get better; I remember that. But the challenge here is that Mull is trying to convey his mental movie of the story, but can't quite land the words to make it flow naturally on the page. Seth, while not the best character at this point, is not the absolute moron most of the non-positive reviews claim. The man is young, and developing character. He is a little ambitiously reckless, but I know enough ten-year-old siblings of my friends to inform those kind reviewers that they need more experience with children. Seth is slightly annoying, but checks out.

What lands now is the sheer... absurdity of the world building. Not that it's bad, simply absurd. Things happen, or are world rules, for reasons that Mull capitalizes on in later entries, leaving their mystifying roots here. If this were standalone, I would not rank it so highly.