13 is the 1st Book - The Last Thirteen series by James Phelan

The Last Thirteen series by James Phelan is a series of thirteen books, each published one after another starting in January 2014, which follows the life of teenage boy Sam after he learns that his entire life has been a lie. His parents aren’t his parents and he is what they call a Dreamer. His ‘parents’ are agents working for a group called the ‘Enterprise’ who watch Dreamers from birth, waiting for them to have dreams of the future. Sam is taken away from his family, captured by the Enterprise, then saved by the ‘Academy’ and given the task to find the thirteen dreamers who will stop an ancient enemy, Solaris.

To begin, I have heard some fairly disheartening opinions on this series, saying it is riddled with cliches and that the author took a massive risk by writing and planning the entire series before the first book even hit the shelves. I admit there is a trace of truth in both of these statements, but I don’t believe it ruined the story. My experience with these books was very fast-paced and intense, which left me turning page after page until I had gone through all thirteen books in a matter of (max.) two weeks.

Phelan knows how to make his books compelling and get the reader interested. All thirteen books begin with an event that happens at the end of the book, seen through one of Sam’s dreams. He fills the reader with questions and makes you follow the story to learn the answer. He plays on human curiosity to get them deeper into the story and become engrossed by the characters.

If you were to ask me why I liked this series, I could not give you a one-sentence answer. I’m not even sure what I liked so much about this series, but I know that I did. Just reading the first book got me so hooked on the series that I bought all others as soon as possible.

The series presents a large range of characters from all corners of the world; Italy, Russia, Japan, Australia (shout-out to ‘Stralians), Cuba, etc. I believe the characters of Sam, Eva and Alex are very well written and each have their own personalities and motives. However, with the large amount of characters that are introduced in each book, it can become hard to remember them all. I can vaguely remember a few characters that are part of the ‘last thirteen’ but many details I have long since forgotten.

I would find it meaningless to rate each individual book, as I didn’t particularly like any book more or less than any other, so instead I will rate them collectively. I give this series a 7 out of 10, because it was fairly entertaining but wasn’t really anything I hadn’t read before. This series is best for a middle-grade readers or younger (8-14 years) but can be nice for anyone who just wants a quick read every now and then.

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