Book Review : 'Surviving the Improbable Quest' by Anderson Atlas

Anderson Atlas’s ‘Surviving the Improbable Quest’ is an adventure alright. But, it is a mystery too and a lot more. It could have been one of sentimentality, considering that it is about regaining what the protagonist has lost. Or it could be about forests in space, and the creatures there.

Coming back to the main focus of this story, who is Allan Westerfield. Allan, a 13 year old boy, is all set to go into the Olympics, when fate strikes a drastic hand. This was at an odd time, when he was getting scolded by his parents, who want him to get into an Ivy League school, but this is not all his problem.

His angry parents were driving him back from school, when out of nowhere, another vehicle strikes theirs. Allan, finds himself in a hospital, and now a paraplegic, who cannot speak after the accident. He is left under the care of his uncle, Rubic. What with both his parents dead plus the paraplegia, which has left him unable to speak or swim.

Eight months after the accident, Allan is at a campfire, with his uncle, where his uncle tells him a scary story. A flash flood occurs where his uncle goes missing and suddenly, Allan is transported into a weird world, way into the galaxy.

The new planet has a thing in common with the story, Allan was hearing from his uncle. All about a monster, called the Jibbawk. He has to escape it and the Killian Crow and go on an quest with Lithic Furies, with the help of Mitzi and Astania, who turned out to be the creatures with compassion.

Miscellaneous aliens, weird adventures draw him into fantastic incidents, one after the other, where he must face near deadly characters and near death situations, all in search of his uncle. Rubic, who, himself is having an adventure all his own on earth. He ends it by walking through the story.

This fantasy, mixed with adventure has its own style. Allan does find his voice, somewhere amidst, all these emotions mashed into the exploration plus mysterious story. It is all in there, you just have to have the hero’s zeal to read on, inside of the story. There would be two more parts to this story. The illustrations are kind of cool too, done by the author himself and they will have you wanting and reading more.

You can Buy the Book, right here.