Escaping Ordinary (Talespinners, Band 2) - Softcover

Reintgen, Scott

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0525646752 ISBN 13: 9780525646754

Verlag: Yearling, 2022

Inhaltsangabe

In this action-packed sequel to Saving Fable perfect for readers of The Land of Stories and The Phantom Tollbooth, Indira finds herself thrown into a quest full of dragons, unlikely allies, and high stakes.

It's been a year since Indira rescued the city of Fable and landed a starring role in a story of her own. Now Indira's ready for a well-earned vacation.

Too bad her advisors have other plans. In preparation for her story's sequel, Indira has been enrolled in the Hero's Journey tutorial, a quest designed to teach her how to be a team player. Indira's assigned crew is a mix of familiar faces and new friends, each hoping to follow in her footsteps into a story.

Indira is ready for this new challenge--until someone crashes their quest. The intruder is more powerful than anyone she's faced before and begins transforming Ordinary into a giant video game. Indira's team will have to level up and outplay their opponent, or else the world's most beloved stories might be lost forever.

Über diesen Titel

Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

Scott Reintgen is a former public school teacher from North Carolina. He survives mostly on cookie dough, which he is told is the most important food group. When he's not writing, he uses his imagination to entertain his wife, Katie, and their sons, Henry and XXX. Scott is the author of the middle-grade novel Saving Fable, as well as the Nyxia Triad and Ashlords for young adults. You can follow him on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter at @Scott_Thought.

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1 

The Story House 

“And for the first time in weeks, the sun began to rise.” 

It took several seconds for that booming voice to fade. Indira stood at the center of a bright living room. The light glanced off her one-handed war hammer as she extended it. The Axel twins--also known as the Thunder Brothers--stood on her right and left, holding out their own matching weapons. Indira kind of felt like they looked like a soccer team in the middle of a halftime huddle. The three of them held the pose for a few stretching seconds. Indira could feel heat creeping up her neck until another voice broke the silence. 

“Cut! That’s a wrap!” 

Indira sighed with relief. They’d been working on the final scene of her first story for weeks. Just offstage, she saw matching relief on the face of everyone who’d been working with them. David came grinning onto the set as the other workers started clearing out equipment. 

“Great job, everyone!” he called. “Seriously! What an accomplishment! Can you believe it? We’re really done. The Story House is finally finished!” 

Indira gave her brother a side hug. The Axel twins nodded their thanks. Indira knew David had been a little disappointed by his role. After hearing the title of the story--Indira Story and the Thunder Brothers--he had assumed that he would be one of the brothers in the book’s title. I mean, he was her brother, after all. But the Author had gone in a completely different direction. David had turned out to be a minor character in the story. Mostly there for comic relief. He’d put on a smile about it, but she knew him well enough to know that it hadn’t been easy on him. 

“What now?” Indira asked, looking around. “Do we start the sequel?” 

James Axel shrugged. “Are we even in the second book? I couldn’t tell from that ending.” 

All of them looked around. It took a few seconds for one of the bookmark stagehands to come bustling forward. “Casting announcements to come! Indira, you’re headed back to Fable. It’s standard in-between-books protocol for protagonists. There’s a dragoneye waiting outside.” 

The Axel twins nodded in unison before heading back through the nearest hallway. Some of the other characters involved in the final scene followed them. Indira wasn’t sure she was ready to go. It felt like they’d arrived just a few weeks ago to start working on the story. 

“Can I walk around the Story House? One more time?” 

The Mark smiled. “Of course, dear. It’s your house, after all.” 

“I’ll meet you out front,” David whispered. “You did great, baby sister.” 

When Indira and the rest of the cast had arrived six months ago, their Story House had been a single-level, one-room building. She had learned that each room represented a new scene or chapter in the story the Author was telling. After they’d performed the first scene, another door had appeared. Inside? A second room that represented the next scene. 

Every new idea the Author came up with made their Story House bigger. Now Indira walked back through the mansion their crew had created together. She ran a hand along the banister before peeking through a door on her left. It was one of the bigger rooms. 

Sensing her presence, the room activated. The boring wallpaper vanished, replaced by a clearing in a forest. Indira watched an image of herself running forward, the Axel twins close behind her, all of them ready to face their nemesis in the story’s climactic fight scene. 

Indira made her patient way back through each room, watching highlights as she did. So much of her time at Protagonist Preparatory had been spent in fear that she’d never make it into a story at all. But here she was, walking through one that had been written just for her. 

It still didn’t feel real sometimes. 

She’d learned a lot since then. Her Author--Darby Martin--had made plenty of tweaks along the way. A part of being a protagonist was learning to adjust. Being quick on your feet. Indira had slowly started to trust her Author to write the very best possible story. Not that she didn’t put in the occasional suggestion or two. 

As she made her way back through the house, she watched happy moments and sad scenes and hilarious misunderstandings. She couldn’t help feeling proud. They’d done their job and they’d done it well. The story was complete now. Indira arrived back in the very first room. 

It was called the Seed, dear reader. 

Writers have them every day. Little seeds of ideas that--given light and water and room to grow--can blossom into something more. Indira paused there to watch. 

A slightly younger version of herself fell through a huge hole in the ground. She landed in a dark and forgotten cavern. It was there that she discovered her hammer for the first time. 

“Thanks for believing in me,” she whispered to the walls. 

No one knew if the Authors could actually hear them, but Indira felt grateful all the same. It was such a joy to be chosen. She walked out the front door and closed it carefully behind her. 

A small, circular park waited. It was surrounded by other Story Houses that were still in progress. Characters from those stories were taking their breaks between scenes, chatting excitedly. Most of the houses on this block were still under construction. Some were no bigger than shacks. Others were even larger than her own house, and nowhere close to being done. 

David strode forward. “Take a look at that Story House. It’s all yours, baby sister.” 

She looked back. There were three levels, a pair of balconies, all covered in storm-gray bricks. Above the house, a huge cable extended up from the chimney and ran up into the clouds, out of sight. Indira had been told that that cable represented the house’s connection to the Author’s imagination. It was a source of power that fueled the story forever. 

“Remember at the beginning?” she asked. “The connection was just a thin little thread.” 

David nodded. “And look at it now. Pretty healthy-looking to me.” 

The thicker the cable, the deeper the Author’s connection to the characters. Their link had only grown since the beginning. Everyone kept saying it was a great sign. 

“And now . . . ,” Indira whispered. “The readers.” 

Both of them looked farther up the road. Their Story House sat in a section of the neighborhood reserved for new stories. Around the block, though, were other, more established tales. Some were actually quite famous. In the air above those houses, she saw thousands of little strings attached to the roofs. Each one represented a connection to a reader. 

It was hard not to look a little longingly in their direction. 

“Readers will come,” David said calmly. “Let’s focus on what we can control.” 

She allowed her brother to sling an arm around her shoulder and lead her off in the other direction. The dragoneye portals were waiting at the far end of the little park. Indira snuck one more glance back over her shoulder. Every cage has a key. Her First Words whispered into the air. She’d been through so much since she’d first heard them. Looking at her Story House, she smiled one more time. It was hard to imagine that she and the other characters had actually built it together. As she turned,...

Details zur Ausgabe

• Verlag: Yearling
• Erscheinungsdatum: 2022
• Sprache: Englisch
• ISBN 10: 0525646752
• ISBN 13: 9780525646754
• Einband: Taschenbuch
• Anzahl der Seiten: 352
• Kontakt zum Hersteller: Nicht verfügbar
• Verantwortliche Person: gpsr@phaidon.com; gpsr@phaidon.com; ; Zähringerstraße 24; Berlin; 10707; Deutschland