Jason Walker is just a common American teenager — studying for tests, practicing baseball and preparing to be a future dentist* in the suburbs of Vista, Colorado. Then he is swallowed* by a zoo animal and expelled*, at some point during the digestive* process, into the medieval-ish land of Lyria.

    Post-hippo, Walker’s entry point into Lyria is through the side of a dying tree, near a river. It is nighttime, and his modern clothes are not only unable to keep him warm, they give him out as “a beyonder” — someone who isn’t from the land.

    Lyria may feel familiar, populated with wizards* and brutish* men skilled in the arts of hunting and swordplay.

    But author Brandon Mull does a better job, pairing humorous and imaginative scenarios with intelligence and well-written dialogue in a story that quickly gets Walker into a plan to depose* Lyria’s evil emperor. Walker comes upon a complex structure called the Repository* of Learning. Bridonus, who lives there, introduces himself as the custodian* of the knowledge stored in the building.

    By reading a book, Walker notices Lyria’s evil ruler Maldor. Maldor, the book says, can be destroyed by the utterance* of a six-syllable word. The book only tells Walker one of those syllables. He needs to find the rest on his own.(SD-Agencies)