The third installment in an epic series of adventures First Earth Fourteen-year-old Bobby Pendragon is a loyal friend, sports star, devoted pet owner -- and Traveler. Along with his uncle Press, Bobby has visited the alternate dimension of Denduron and participated in a civil war. He's also waded through the endangered underwater territory of Cloral. Now Bobby once again finds himself thrust beyond the boundaries of time and space into a place that seems somewhat familiar: First Earth. Bobby and the Traveler from Cloral -- Spader -- have flumed to New York City, 1937. Against a backdrop of gangsters, swing music, and the distant sound of a brewing war, the two must uncover the evil Saint Dane's newest plot. But is Bobby ready for the difficult choices ahead? Grade 5-8-This substantial third book in the quartet may not be great literature, but it does have a fast pace, suspenseful plotting, and cliff-hanger chapter endings that will make it popular. Readers who love video games, James Bond, Harry Potter, and Artemis Fowl will clamor for it. Bobby Pendragon and his friend Spader time travel by means of magical "flumes" to different parallel territories attempting to save them from Saint Dane, an evil shape-shifter who's determined to control the universe. In this installment, they go to Manhattan on the eve of World War II and find work in a fancy hotel full of celebrities and gangsters fighting turf wars. They must figure out what hand Saint Dane will play in world events of 1937 and whether they'll be able to stop him. This necessitates a trip 3000 years into the future. Along the way, they learn painful lessons about their role as saviors of the universe. Readers won't mind the lack of character development as they're drawn into the nonstop action, snappy dialogue, pop-culture references, and lots of historical trivia. It's advisable to read the books in order because, although each one has a stand-alone plot, frequent references are made to previous events. Sharon Rawlins, Piscataway Public Library, NJ Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc. "A rousing good story. It starts off with a kiss, then leaves the girl behind and gets into nonstop mystery and hard-hitting action." "Believable, likable heroes, and ... scary adventures that never go where you expect. What more could you want?" "It won't end till he thinks he's won. That's when he'll fail." D.J. MacHale is the author of the #1 New York Times bestselling Pendragon series and the Morpheus Road series. He has written, directed and produced many television series and movies for young people that have been seen on Nickelodeon, The Disney Channel, HBO, Showtime, PBS, Discovery Kids, and the broadcast networks. D.J. lives with his family in Southern California. Chapter 1: First Earth That's where I am. First Earth. Veelox was a misdirection. Spader and I flumed to Veelox, but found the action wasn't there. It was here on First Earth. Where is First Earth? The better question is, when is First Earth? I'm in New York City and it's 1937. March of 1937 to be exact. To be really exact, it's March 11 of 1937. I'm writing this on my birthday. Here's a weird thought: If I'm in 1937 and it's my birthday, did I still turn fifteen? Kind of freaky, no? I'll begin this new journal by telling you I stumbled into the most bizarro, confusing, dangerous situation yet. But then again, haven't I said that before? Let me give you a little taste of what happened in only the first few minutes since I got here.... Spader and I were nearly killed. Three times. We were also robbed and witnessed a gruesome murder. Happy birthday to me! The way things are going, I know what I want for my fifteenth birthday...the chance to have a sixteenth. When Spader and I flumed in from Veelox, I had no idea of what "First Earth" meant. Since I'm from Second Earth, I could only guess that First Earth was sometime in the Earth's past. But how far past? For all I knew we were fluming back to a time when quigs were dinosaurs and we'd be on the run from hungry, yellow-eyed raptors. I was totally relieved to find that when we landed at the gate, it was the exact same rocky room that I had been through many times before. Yes, we had arrived at the gate off the subway tunnel in the Bronx, New York. Phew. At least there were no T-rexes or Neanderthals waiting for us. That was the good news. Bad news was that we weren't alone. As soon as the flume dropped us off, I saw two guys standing there, facing us. They wore old-fashioned gray suits, like Clark Kent wears in the old Superman show on TV Land. Actually, a better analogy is that these guys were dressed like the bad guys from that old show, because that's what they were. Bad guys. Very bad guys. They wore wide-brimmed hats that were pulled down low and had white handkerchiefs around their noses and mouths like banditos. There's only one word to describe these dudes. Gangsters. Their eyes looked wide and scared. No