New York Review of Books Review

"THE MAZE OF BONES," which sends a pair of likable orphans on a world-spanning treasure hunt, displays a glossy, tightly engineered appeal. The book is the first installment of "The 39 Clues," a multimedia extravaganza that combines a 10-book series, collectible playing cards, online puzzles and a contest with more than $100,000 in prizes. Scholastic may be hoping to recapture some of the Harry Potter demographic, by force if necessary: the press kit announces a first printing of a million copies worldwide, a multimillion-dollar marketing blitz and a "grassroots blogging campaign"; Steven Spielberg is poised to bring out a film version. There is, yes, also a book involved. The premise of "The Maze of Bones" is dramatic and instantly engaging: Amy and Dan Cahill are orphans, brother and sister, neglected by their many rich relations. When their beloved grandmother dies, she leaves her descendants an unorthodox will: either accept a bank voucher worth $1 million, or else, "you shall be given the first of 39 clues. These clues will lead you to a secret, which, should you find it, will make you the most powerful, influential human beings on the planet." Amy and Dan opt for the clues, pitting themselves against a cast of relatives who range from obnoxious to menacing to merely skeevy. Adventures, travel and hairbreadth escapes follow, interspersed with the odd historical anecdote, as we learn that every single famous or influential person of the past few centuries has been a member of the Cahill family. Rick Riordan, who wrote the first book and has planned the 10-book arc, is the best-selling author of both adult and young adult mysteries. The story is an almost note-perfect blend of "Harry Potter" (orphans! special families!) and "The Da Vinci Code" (puzzles! history!), with a dash of "Great Expectations," although where Pip's expectations lead him to a bittersweet grown-up wisdom, I have a hunch the Cahill orphans will be getting something much nicer. Bookish Amy and hyperactive Dan are agreeably flawed characters but have an undeniably focus-grouped, manufactured quality - as does, let's face it, the whole book. The supporting cast is, with few exceptions, made up of types: sinister spies, bullies, snobs and self-involved celebrities. I found myself wishing for a little of the psychologically resonant darkness or moral ambiguity of a Roald Dahl or Maurice Sendak, authors who showed that books written for children don't have to be entirely child-safe. When the book tells us that Dan loved his grandmother because "she'd treated him and Amy like real people, not kids," we hear what's wrong. The writing is carefully bland, as if it didn't trust its readers enough. "The Maze of Bones" is only the beginning of an elaborate online game that will unfold over the next few years. Each of the first 10 books is projected to reveal one clue per title; the other 29 will come from solving online-only puzzles. The entry-point is an elaborate Web site (www.the39clues.com), which offers games, blogs written by characters and pages of additional lore about the Cahills. Each visitor is invited to take the role of a member of the Cahill family searching for the titular clues (competing against the books' heroes, but c'est la guerre). The secondary revenue stream - excuse me, series of collectable cards - unlocks more content and more puzzles, leading players into the larger-scale contest to solve the mystery behind all 39 clues; if they manage that, they'll get a chance at a $10,000 grand prize. The puzzles themselves follow serviceable but shopworn formulas: anagrams and numbers-to-letters codes, interspersed with unremarkable arcade-style games. I was hoping for a chance to play detective, to use my powers of observation and deduction to arrive at the brilliant solution to a dark and obscure mystery. Instead, it was a matter of doing a little arithmetic and clicking the mouse enough times. After passing four or five simple challenges, I was awarded my clue in the form of a short video presentation. There are, however, hints that the creators are building a more profound play experience modeled on the emerging genre of alternate reality games - online games in which thousands of players solve a sprawling mystery together, finding clues hidden in places like dummy Web sites and recorded phone messages. The players share information and create theories to explain what they've seen. (I Love Bees and Perplex City are seminal examples of the form.) It will be hard for "The 39 Clues" to reproduce this effect, partly because safety restrictions forbid players from communicating directly through the Web site. More important, the puzzles offer relatively little scope for using your creativity - to solve problems your own way or add your own stories to the larger matrix. It's still early in the process, though, and there are hints that as the game evolves, participants will encounter a more layered mystery to unravel. Much depends on building an enthusiastic fan base of players who will add their own imagination to the experience. To me, "The Maze of Bones" feels too calculated to invest in wholeheartedly, too eager to please. It's a story about people born into the most privileged family in the world, who then set out to become the most important people in history. Whatever happened to just owning your own chocolate factory? 'The Maze of Bones' is only the beginning of a sprawling online game slated for the next few years. Austin Grossman is the author of "Soon I Will Be Invincible," a novel.