HAPPENSTANCE FOUND

The beginning of a moderately engaging fantasy series employs a number of tropes readers will find familiar—perhaps irritatingly so. Happenstance—Hap—appears in a world he doesn’t know. He has no memories but a lot of languages, and he does not need to sleep. He is found by the wildly curious, intensely aware and distinctly manic-depressive Lord Umber, who clearly has a plan for Hap. The pair travels to Umber’s city of Kurahaven with the help of three unlikely and elaborately contrived characters. In Kurahaven, the action slows a bit while Hap learns about the world, discovers a few of his talents and sees the effect his startlingly green eyes have upon the populace. The climax, which involves a rockslide and a race down a collapsing stairwell and crumbling walls into the sea, comes straight from Indiana Jones. There’s a little bit of preaching, especially when Umber explains his own origins, and barely a pause without resolution at the end to prepare readers for the next installment. (Fantasy. 8-12)