Sky Raiders

This was a very good book. The more involved it got the better the story took shape. Loved the idea of realms and magic!

The narrator has a tough job jumping around with so many characters, but he did a great job. Brandon Mull has a way of taking fantasy tropes and twisting them just a bit to make them fresh.

I liked the story but the way the digital recording skipped important parts of the book really bothered me and I could only fix it sometimes. I really wanted to enjoy it but I just had to give up after a while.

It started out as an ordinary night of trick or treating by Cole Randolph and his friends but things quickly changed when the kids visited a scary haunted house. They didn't know that the monsters were real and that they would be kidnapped and taken to another world as slaves. Though Cole manages to hide from the slavers, he decides to follow them to see if he can rescue his friends. However, he is quickly captured and made a slave.Cole is sold to the Sky Raiders who live on the edge and scavenge from castles floating on clouds. Cole begins as a scout which is the most dangerous job. He makes friends with Mira and Twitch and has a friendly rival named Jace. The kids decide to escape from slavery when the High King sends his legionnaires to capture Mira.The kids escape into the cloudwall despite the fact that no one who enters ever returns. There they meet an old shaper and his apprentices who are also hiding from the High King. Secrets are revealed and the kids go on a quest.The story is full of action and adventure in a world where talented shapers can make anything they can imagine. I really liked Cole because he was loyal to his friends, brave and resourceful. This is the first book in a series and leaves lots of questions remaining to be answered in further volumes.

One of my favourite books of all time, this is my 4th time reading the series. 100% would recommend!

One of the best series I've ever read. I've actually read the whole series twice.

This book is by far the best brandon mull series! I love it ?.

"take it one day at a time. learn as you go. you have many knots to untie, but you won't unravel them all today."

It was amazing one of the best books I’ve read

This was a very good book. The more involved it got the better the story took shape. Loved the idea of realms and magic!
I came back to this book to reread the entire series again (2020)

Wow, amazing world building and a plot that dragged me in and kept my attention when I should have been doing important things, like sleeping. The first chapter was creepy and I didn't think I would read it to my little kids- scary Halloween kidnappers in gruesome costumes, but the rest was great. And Brandon Mull raises stoke questions about what is human and the ability to choose.

I got a copy of this book to review through the Amazon Vine program. I loved Mull's Fablehaven series but wasn't a huge fan of his Beyonders series. I really really enjoyed this first book in his new Five Kingdoms series. This is the first book out of five planned books for this series. The 2nd book in the series will be titled The Rogue Knight and is scheduled for an October 2014 release.Cole ends up at a creepy Halloween party with some friends. Then things get really strange, Cole and his friends are transported to another world called The Outskirts. The Outskirts are a place between everything and are made up of Five Kingdoms. Cole ends up as a slave for the Sky Raiders. The Sky Raiders loot incredible floating castles that randomly appear in the sky. While there he meets a strange girl named Mira. Mira needs Cole’s help and hopefully in return she can help him save his friends from slavery.The beginning is very creepy, but after that we are introduced to a wonderfully creative world that is full of magic and people who are Shapers...they can shape things to their will. This means the things you run into throughout the book are incredibly unexpected, creative, and intriguing. From floating castles full of random magical things, to crazy worlds of gigantic food and scary plastic dinosaurs...there are just a ton of neat ideas and crazy things in this world.The book features both a girl and a boy as the primary characters, so I think readers of either gender will be able to relate to the story well. I enjoyed the characters too. Cole is somewhat clueless at the beginning of the story, but he is also brave and loyal. He is easy to engage with and a good role model. Mira is the main heroine and she is a fascinating character as well. I really enjoyed reading about them both. We meet some other side characters along the way and all of them are well done and entertaining.There is a lot of action and adventure and the story was very engaging and hard to put down. Reading about Cole scavenging treasure from all of these crazy floating castles was a lot of fun. The world is incredibly detailed and there is so much more to learn about it in future books. I really really loved it.Overall I really enjoyed this book, it features a wonderfully creative world with engaging and likable characters. There is a lot of action, adventure, and magic. I liked this book much better than his Beyonders series. Whether or not I like it was much as his Fablehaven series (which is one of my absolute favorite middle grade fantasy series) remains to be seen. I highly recommend this book to fans of middle grade fantasy, it was a fantastic read. I can’t wait to read The Rogue Knight when it releases in October.

I have been a fan of Brandon Mull's work since I picked up the First Fablehaven book. His newest work is just as good as, maybe even better than, his previous works. Like the rest of his novels, Sky Raiders breaks the mold when it comes to creativity. Read this book you will love it!

As Cole and his friends discover, bad things happen when you venture to a scary haunted house one Halloween night. When his two friends are whisked away to the Outskirts to be sold as slaves, Cole knows it is up to him to rescue them and somehow find their way back home from this strange new world. This proves to be a challenge because Cole himself is sold to a group of salvage pirates who use magic to recover treasure from floating castles. With the help of a magical jumping sword and other items Cole will try to stay alive and find his friends before they are lost forever in the Five Kingdoms. Horrific monsters aren't the only thing Cole has to worry about as he will be pulled into the political intrigue and become a protector to a young girl on the run. The Five Kingdoms is a new series that has everything kids want - scary monsters, fantasy worlds and non-stop excitement.Fans of Brandon Mull rejoice - there is another great world to delve into.