Summary | Excerpt | Reviews | Beyond the book | Read-Alikes | Genres & Themes | Author Bio
From the book jacket: Alfred Kropp was just
trying to survive high school when his guardian uncle
gets him roped into a suspicious get-rich-quick scheme
that changes his life forever: stealing Excaliburthe
legendary sword of King Arthur. After Alfred unwittingly
delivers the sword into the hands of a man with
enormously evil intentions, he sets off on an unlikely
quest to try to right his wrong and save the world from
imminent destruction. This gripping, fast-paced,
hilarious novel is both a thrilling adventure story and
an engaging account of one boy's coming of age.
Comments: Unusually tall 15-year-old Alfred is
going through life somewhat apathetically but
nonetheless safely, until his dodgy uncle embroils him
in a scheme to steal an ancient sword from
somebody's office. That somebody happens to be a
descendent of one of the Knights of the Round Table and
the sword is, of course, Excalibur - and he who wields
Excalibur is invincible, so lots of people are keen to
get their hands on it.
Before Alfred's got time to think about his unfinished
homework he finds himself caught up with yet more
descendents of the Round Table - the dastardly Mogart
and the honorable Bennacio in this light-hearted,
somewhat violent (heads do roll) tale of quest and
adventure, the first in a planned series.
Extrapolating from the old adage
that one can judge a man by the
company he keeps; a good way to
decide whether one might like a
particular author's style could
be to find out what authors he
admires! In Yancey's case he
claims his favorite books to be
Charlie & The Chocolate Factory,
for the humor; The Hobbit,
for the whimsy and the
adventure; The Borrowers,
A Wrinkle in Time, and
above all others, Roald Dahl.
If these are your sort of books,
then there's a good chance
Yancey will be your sort of
author - or rather, he's an
author that you might wish to
introduce to any 'young adult'
readers in your life.
While you're about it you might want to check out his
2004 memoir for yourself, which Amazon describe as
follows: "Imagine if
Brad Meltzer or John Grisham's
first book had been a memoir
about working for the Internal
Revenue Service and you have an
idea of just how thrilling
Richard Yancey's Confessions
of a Tax Collector: One Man's
Tour of Duty Inside the IRS
really is!"
This review was originally published in The BookBrowse Review in November 2005, and has been updated for the January 2007 edition. Click here to go to this issue.
If you liked The Extraordinary Adventures of Alfred Kropp, try these:
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Alex Rider confounds an evil villain's plans to salvage a doomed project by whatever means necessary.
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