Finished InterWorld by Neil Gaiman and Michael Reaves.

This is a young adult book that focuses on Joey Harker. Joey’s always had a bad sense of direction — he’s the kind of kid who can get lost in his own house. But one day, Joey steps into a mist and into another world — literally. Joey discovers that he’s a Walker, or someone who can move through various dimensions/planes/worlds. Not only that, there are other Walkers, who are all different versions of Joey from alternate worlds. Male, female, winged, big, small, mechanical. You name it, there’s a version of Joey. Or Jo or Jay or … you get the idea.

The Walkers are engaged in an epic battle with two rival companies who are intent on conquering worlds. The Walkers’ goal is to keep the balance between the big bad company that uses magic and the one that relies on science. And since Joey is a powerful Walker, everyone wants to get their hands on him …

I’ll be honest with you guys — this book made my head hurt. It’s basically a science fiction time/space travel book about a group of kid commandoes. Think A Wrinkle in Time crossed with The Matrix (when Walkers get captured they get boiled down to power the bad guys’ machinery). I’m not a big fan of sci-fi to start with, and the book features a lot of terms/ideas that just weren’t explained that well, like the In-Between and multi-dimensional life forms.

The story itself is your standard fantasy genre arc — young, unremarkable boy discovers he has a great power/destiny and goes off to fight the good fight. Joey was an okay character, but I liked his soap bubble pet Hue better than I did him.

Overall, there was just nothing in here that I haven’t seen before, and the lack of explanation bothered me. On the bright side, the book makes me want to go back and re-read A Wrinkle in Time. Still, I have to give this one a thumbs down.

Up next: Texas Rain by Jodi Thomas.

Books in my TBR pile: About 13.