I wish I could remember who recommended this book to me, so I could tell them to stop recommending me books. This is the worst thing I've read in recent memory, a children's science fiction book which will fail entirely to appeal to children and will annoy readers of science fiction. If you're afraid of spoilers, then skip this review, but since you shouldn't bother reading the book anyway, why go on ahead and read.
The story plunges right in: time has stopped, and only Max Quick is able to move among the frozen-in-time adults. Max is a character familiar to all readers of children's books: the Mistreated Orphaned Boy. I was hoping that he would not turn out to be the Mistreated Orphaned Boy With A Special Destiny Laid Upon Him (yes, Harry Potter is only one of a long line of these orphans), but as with most things with this book, I was disappointed. Max isn't the only child who can move about -- there are some other Good Kids who join him on his quest, and a Bad Gang who tries to stop him. All these kids can not only move, but also have super powers -- they can run faster, jump higher, etc. It's kind of a neat fantasy, but the novelty of it quickly wears off for the reader. (The description of the fight between Max and his Sidekick, and the Bad Gang, in a field of "frozen" fog is one of the only interesting things that the book does with the stopped time schtick.)
The other main element of the story is Max's Special Destiny. This is probably the most entertaining part of the book, when they discover just who's stopped time, and why. I won't reveal it here -- not because I'm afraid of spoiling TPATP, but because I don't want to reveal the Sumerian sub-plot of Snow Crash, from which this book rips shamelessly. The author thanks Stephenson in his acknowledgements, perhaps as a way to stave off a lawsuit.
My biggest problem with the book, however, isn't that it's derivative. There are some entertaining ideas in here (hiding in mirrors, magic books as both portals and future history, etc). But the characters are entirely flat. I didn't care about Max, Ian, or Casey because they were entirely unbelievable. Max pales beside such heroes as Lloyd Alexander's Taran Wanderer, John Fiztgerald's J.D. (of "The Great Brain" series), or, yes, Harry Potter. Mark Jeffrey, the author of TPATP, seems to have confused "character" with "collection of tics". Ian is the Smart!British!Kid!Who!Says!"Bloody"! Casey is the Scared!Girl!With!A!Crush! And Max himself is really a nonentity. None of the characters really seem to matter, they're only around to push forward the plot.
Finally, if you're going to self-publish a book, for Strunk's sake hire a decent book designer. I'm not talking about the cover art, I'm talking about typography. Someone who knows something about leading, margins, etc. An editor probably would have urged the first-time author to put less than a third of the book in italics, as well.
The Pocket and the Pendant reads like a treatment for a movie that desparately needs rewriting and good casting.
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