Blog Challenge #4

This week's challenge was to reread a book and write how you understood the book this time compared to the last time you read that book. I decided to read Pendragon #1 Merchant of Death again because I'm currently reading book 9, and have read all the other books in the series so far. I expected myself to be able to understand everything easier and being able to know why this happened. Being a series, the first book is very important as it introduces the story and the characters.

Pendragon #1 was a great book when I read it the first time, it was even better when I read it the second time. I remember the night that I got it, I finished watching a scary movie and wanted to read so I could get my mind off of aliens coming to invade our world. I decided to read Pendragon as I just got it that day, so I flip the page straight to Chapter 1 and it says: 'I hope you're reading this Mark...' That freaked me out completely!!! (guess why) I was pretty relieved when I found out it was Mark Dimond not me, but I still remember the goosebumps running up my spine as I thought of how this could have happened.

Bobby Pendragon is the main character of the series, and starts the story off with one of his journals. The book is interestly written, with one part being Bobby's journal written in past tense, while is written in the present usually following Mark Dimond or Courtney Chetwynde. Originally, I found that really confusing and awkward which made things hard to understand. After nine books of that format, I pick up almost every detail although I do no what to expect for.

Bobby seems very shy and scared in the first book and doesn't have any courage, all he wants to do is to go home. By Book 9, not only does he know that to fight Saint Dane is his duty, he's more trained and fit and has courage and experience to take down Saint Dane in a fight, unfortunately he's seriously losing the battle. Bobby's humour stays the same though. He's still funny and makes funny puns, and always wants to make me laugh. Courtney is athletic and popular and is used to being number 1, somewhere in book 4 or 5 when they enter high school, Courtney realizes that she's not so perfect anymor eand starts to lose her confidence and gets depressed. Mark is interesting because he was always nerdy, and bullies always liked to beat him up. He invents new technology in book 7 and brings it to First Earth which messes everything up and causes a change in how the Earth advanced technologically.

In Book 1, the stakes seem very low as only Denduron is at stake, even though Uncle Press does foreshadow about what would would happen if they lost Denduron to Saint Dane. In Book 9, Bobby lost Denduron after he won it in Book 1 and was losing on the territories as Saint Dane looks like he is going to win and that there is little hope left to do anything.

It is also easier for me to picture everything happening and how every character looked like and acted like. It was easier to read and I already knew what was going to happen so I went over a quick scan picking up a few details that would affect the story later on in the series. The book goes under a similar plot chart as some of the other books with things looking bad, then Bobby helps a bit just to make things worst, and then they find out who is really the bad guy. Then when all hope looks lost, Bobby saves the day.(Though, they lost Veelox in book 4).

Pendragon was a great book. The first time I would have given it a

The second time, I'd give it a