Island & Everest Series

Just finished a re-read of these two series while I’m waiting to fill in some missing books of previous series (trying to go somewhat chronologically), and I found them both to still be so entertaining.

Possibly my favourite trope of them all, the deserted island. It’s almost like a post-apocalyptic work, only not as dark. It has many of the same elements; self-sufficiency, scrounging for resources and, in some cases, teamwork. There must be something universal about liking this genre, as it’s been used in plenty of books, like Robinson Crusoe (mentioned in the series), Swiss Family Robinson, Lord Of The Flies and The Cay, among others. Movies like Blue Lagoon and Castaway. TV shows like Lost and Gilligan’s Island. Even the one-panel comics with generally witty one-liners.

I thought that both the premise of how the kids got together and the predicament they encountered were both extremely well-done. It seemed to me that this might have been the first series that transitioned to a slightly older crowd than previous ones, with some instances of injury and death. I found it interesting that the character of Charla ended up going through pretty much what happened to Simone Biles twenty years later.

Everest had another great premise to push the books forward. Your descriptions of the terrain, climate and the internal struggle and motivation of the characters should make any reader feel exhausted, frozen and in peril. It reminded me a little of Andy Weir’s “The Martian” with a character having to overcome the odds in a hostile environment with a dash of science thrown in there.

I loved the possible foreshadowing of a following series with the mention of the Titanic in this series as well as a callback with the mention of being on a beach in Guam.

In both series we have mutli-dimensional characters, which is really enjoyable. It’s easy to dislike someone if they’re just constantly a jerk, but when you get to know their circumstances and they try to redeem themselves, it makes you have to rethink things.

I don’t really have much in the way of questions with these books other than: You made a switch here from your previous comedic works to action/adventure. Did you ever have more humorous parts written and edited out to keep it more suspenseful and make sure it didn’t get too light-hearted?