The Ruined City

By John Wilson

Howard is a lonely, geeky tenth-grader dealing with a father who's had some kind of breakdown, a flaky, overprotective mother and frightening waking dreams. Then he meets Cate, a strange girl who convinces him that he is an Adept, which means he can communicate through dreams with other dimensions and, under certain circumstances, travel between them. Howard discovers that our world is only one of several dimensions swirling in time and space, and that one of the others, peopled by unimaginably powerful monsters, is approaching Earth for the first time in millennia. The last time the dimensions coincided, our world was saved by the breaking of a powerful golden mask in the Chinese city of Sanxingdui. Together, Howard and Cate travel through time and space, meeting other Adepts and avoiding lurking monsters, in a quest to find the three fragments of the golden mask and prevent it from falling into the wrong hands.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Orca Book Publishers
• Release date: Oct 2, 2018
• ISBN: 9781459819726

John Wilson

Born in Edinburgh, Scotland, John Wilson grew up on the Isle of Skye and outside Glasgow, without the slightest idea that he would ever write books. After obtaining a degree in geology from the University of St. Andrews, he worked in Zimbabwe and Alberta before taking up writing full time and moving to Vancouver Island in 1991. John is the author of numerous articles, essays, poems and reviews, and almost fifty novels and nonfiction books for kids, teens and adults. He was a finalist for the Governor General's Literary Award (The Alchemist's Dream, 2007), and his books have won or been short-listed for most Canadian children's-literature prizes. For more information, visit johnwilsonauthor.com.

Reviews for The Ruined City

[kpolhuis_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Not bad for a start... I want to know what will happen next. I always love it when a book for teens gives a shout out to other books, hopefully feeding the need to read :-)

[amilligan_13 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I received this through Early Reviewers by LibraryThing. Keeping in mind that this book was written for a teen audience, I found the pacing, suspense and hints of mythology to be good. I did not really like that the protagonist did seem to be developed into a fully dynamic character. But overall it was an entertaining read.

[literate0ninja · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

This book follows high school student Howard as strange things start to happen in his life, eventually leading to him finding out that he has supernatural powers and must use them to protect the world from being overrun by terrible monsters. Overall, this was a pretty quick read, but I never felt particularly connected to the characters. The story is an interesting intersection between chinese mythology and Lovecraftian C'thulhu mythos, but overall the connection seems a bit half-baked. This might serve as an interesting jumping-off point for middle-grade readers who are unfamiliar with those genres and histories, but it just wasn't my cup of tea.

[susanehh · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I received this book as an advance readers' copy from Library Thing. “Ruined City” was a slow starter, opening with a rather pretentious little prologue. I did not think I was going to like this book, but I was mistaken. The story is satisfyingly scary, very creepy atmosphere.Character development is a bit thin, and there is a talking cat who really serves no purpose in the story other than to be a talking cat, but, hey, nothing's perfect. Overall, it's an entertaining read that looks like the setup for a sequel. Middle School Readers should have fun with this.

[gryphon8kl · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

In ancient China, a sorcerer plans to conquer the city of Sanxingdui so that he can take a mask that will give him extreme power but will unleash Lovecraftian monsters from other dimensions. In modern times, in the town of Aylford, someone seeks to unleash Cthulhu (I meant it when I referred to Lovecraftian monsters) to gain power. In both cases, a boy, a girl, and the girl’s pet have to stop them because of prophecy or destiny.For me, the book just did not work. It got off on the wrong foot right away, with the first chapter being largely exposition delivered in a way that fell just short of “As you know, Bob...,” with two characters telling each other things that they surely knew the other one knew. This could have been recovered from, but but additional problems kept piling up without any particular redeeming qualities standing out. Almost every character seemed to be either irritating or underdeveloped, some dialogue (especially in the first meeting between the main modern-day characters) didn’t feel anything like how anyone has ever talked, descriptions were sometimes clumsy (including one case where two levels of clarification were added, suggesting the author knew his target audience would have no idea who the person he referred to was), people don’t react to events (both supernatural and mundane) that should at least cause a brief pause, and a few characters just start appearing and disappearing in the last few chapters without explanation. Add in a major part of defeating the villain being obvious as soon as a particular character shows up in the climax, what looks like a major plot point being introduced about eighty percent of the way into the book and then turning out to be completely irrelevant, the final chapter ending at a rather random-seeming point, and a host of minor issues, and the end result really doesn’t hold up.

[melanie_green7ar6368 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I loved this book except for the ending unless there is going to be a sequel.

[phdinhorribleness · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I enjoyed this book immensely. It is a little slow getting started, but once the action picks up it gets really interesting. It's full of suspense and intrigue as you wonder exactly what is going on and how everything all fits together. It held my interest all the way through.

[kristinah-2 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I received this book from Librarything in exchange for an honest review.I enjoyed this book overall. For the age group this book is intended for, I thought it was a little slow to start out. I'm not sure that someone between the ages of 11-14 would enjoy jumping back and forth between past and present without a whole lot going on. The second half was much better that the first. If this is going to be a trilogy, I will read the next book in the series.

[dbsovereign · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Okay so they hold hands a lot but never kiss. That's okay as it is a book for young adults, right? I enjoyed the fact that the plot was fast-moving though it struck me as a bit strained at times… "'Don't you think your mom would want to know we met Amshu and Claec from Atlantis?'" The characters really did seem to grow and develop which is always nice. I guess my biggest beef is that there are an awful lot of loose ends. This is probably attributable to the fact that it is first of a series. But overall take: Epic and fun. I especially appreciated the cat/familiar’s sense of humor. Nerd meets Goth with cat, grows up a bit and then saves the world.Thanks to Orca Book Publishers and John Wilson! If you are selling this story in China first, that is a smart move. I would love to see a Chinese mini-series! We are rooting for a new Chinese / USA détente on your behalf! By the way, my copy only had 292 pages, not 304 - did I get short-changed or am I missing something?

[jalenv_2 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

If you love Lovecraft as I love Lovecraft, then The Ruined City by John Wilson is a book for you. If I hadn't been suffering from one of my bouts of eyestrain, I'm sure I'd have read it in a single sitting instead of four days.The action switches back and forth between the Chinese city of Sanxingdui before it was abandoned roughly 2,800 to 3,000 years ago, and a fictional town named Aylford in the present day. According to the Author's Note, Aylford is loosely based upon H.P. Lovecraft's fictional town of Arkham (for which the infamous Arkham Asylum in the Batman comics was named).The three who have to save the day in Sanxingdui are two young servants of Emperor Kun Zhuang: Chin, who dreams of being a wushu master, kitchen girl Ting, and Ting's mutt, Fu. The present-day trio are Howard Peter Lawson, Cate (short for 'Hecate'), and her cat, Heimao. No, we're not told if Hecate is being pronounced 'Heh-kah-tee' or, as Shakespeare pronounced it, 'Heh-cat', so Cate is either 'Kahtee' or "Cat'. I wish I knew which.Of course I chortled when I read that Aylford has a Charles Dexter Ward High School. Lovecraft wrote The Case of Charles Dexter Ward. Howard, Cate, Leon Whateley, and Madison Danforth are all 10th graders at C.D.W. High. Howard is a geek Cate is called a 'Goth chick' by Leon, the obnoxious rich kid; and blond Madison, the hottest girl in the 10th grade. Howard has a crush on Madison, but she's going with Leon. (It's got to be the money because he has a rotten personality and a face like a fish.)By the way, there's a 'Dansforth' in At the Mountains of Madness and the Whateley family are characters from 'The Dunwich Horror,' two of Lovecraft's best. Our villain in the Sanxingdui chapters is Shenxian, who wants to gain unimaginable power by putting on the Golden Mask. Normally this would not be a problem, but an event mentioned in a pesky prophecy might happen soon. If you're wondering why the Emperor and the wise woman Jingshen don't just have Shenxian captured and executed, that will be explained (by implication) later. Our villain in the present is pretending to be a nobody. Howard is one of those poor souls who have trouble starting, let alone continuing, a normal conversation. His New-Ager mom has trouble remembering he's not a little kid anymore. His father, who was a cool archeologist, is currently a guest at the APIC (Aylford Institute for Psychiatric Care). If C.D.W. High gave a trophy for worrying, Howard would probably win. One of his worries is about something strange that started happening to him several months ago.Luckily for Howard, Cate starts helping him. Even more luckily, Cate is fluent in Chinese. At the mystery progresses, Howard would be lost without her knowledge. Cate's one of the good guys, but her attempts to clue Howard in remind me a little of those encounters between ignorant modern men and Evil Old Recluses Lovecraft was so fond of writing about. If you're a fellow horror story/movie fan, you'll probably want to slap your forehead a few times at Howard, but he's a science geek. Cate's valuable information sounds like mystical mumbo jumbo to him -- and that stuff's his mother's department.Cate accompanies Howard on his latest visit to the APIC. On the way, he tells her about his father (See pp. 46-49). He also introduces Cate to his favorite bibliognost, Aileen. (The reason that librarian would prefer to be called a bibliognost does not please this former librarian.) Aileen tells them both about the local legend of Wat Heely. It's an interesting legend, but not nearly as interesting as what happens during the visit with Howard's dad. Back in Sanxingdui, the emperor gives Chen a very dangerous assignment. Chen intends to expand on that assignment by rescuing two victims kidnapped by Shenxian. Chen's not planning on getting help from Ting and Fu, but I wouldn't count them out. Things will get really hairy when that prophecy starts coming true. They aren't the horror movie material of Howard's experiences, but they're just as potentially fatal.Chen, Ting, and Fu will have dramatic showdown of their own, but it will pale in comparison to what Howard, Cate, and Heimao are put through.Howard learns some very uncomfortable things about himself. I fully sympathize with his reaction. I'd feel the same way were I in his shoes. That didn't stop me from enjoying traveling through a Lovecraftian ruined city obviously not made by humans, or the unusual boat trip that's also a nod to Lovecraft (see the Author's Note). I can't help wondering, though, if a place with non-Euclidean geometry would bother spatially disabled persons such as myself. Mentions: Chapter 2 (pp. 13-18): Neil Gaiman, Led Zeppelin, Cheerios, and 'Star Wars'. It opens with a description of Aylford that lets you know this is not a mundane place.Chapter 3 (pp. 19-26): (a portable, not sure what that means in this context), 7-Eleven, George Clooney, Chrissie Hynde, lead singer of the Pretenders; the origin and meaning of 'Howard', Hecate the goddess, her father Persus; and what 'Heimao' meansChapter 4 (pp. 27-35):