Four young friends end up getting 'assignments' from a mysterious Commander X. This time it's Sam's turn to be the hero when he goes deep underground to rescue a missing group of Boy Scouts.
A fun adventure for middle school readers to start them on their entry into the world of conspiracy.
Four young friends end up getting 'assignments' from a mysterious Commander X. This time it's Sam's turn to be the hero when he goes deep underground to rescue a missing group of Boy Scouts.
A fun adventure for middle school readers to start them on their entry into the world of conspiracy.
You can call me Sam.
          I help to write a Webpage called The Conspiracy. Itâs pretty good if I do say so myself. If you like things like UFOâs, aliens, government conspiracies, and that sort of thing, you should check us out. I canât tell you exactly what our location is, but, we will contact you if you turn out to be the kind of person we can trust. You see, our website is dangerous. Not because it will wipe out your hard drive, or melt your computer, or anything as boring at that. Our site is dangerous because--we tell the truth.
You might think you already know the truth. You probably already know that UFOs are just swamp gases, weather balloons or someoneâs nutty imagination. Well if you think that, youâre wrong. And if you get yourself into things you donât understand, you could be dead wrong. Â
How do I know? Because me and three of my friends have been there. Got the T-shirt kind of âbackâ. Good news is--we lived to talk about it.
Itâs my turn to write this all down on our Webpage, so I guess Iâll start by telling you the story. Iâm not as good as writing, as say, Morgan, the brainiac of our group. Iâm not as poetic as Crystal, the would-be famous singer of our group, and Iâm not as good at computers as Bryant, but then again there are not too many adults are as good as Bryant on the computer. He says itâs because of his mom is Japanese, descended from a  long line of Samerai warriors. He does battle using the computer. He becomes its soul.
Yeah, right. Whatever. Since heâs the best, I donât argue. Â
But let me start at the beginning. It all started when our fifth grade teacher Mrs. Bentley made us write up a paper on the gods, and goddesses of Mesopotamia, just because Crystal, and Morgan were talking. Well, after writing up our paper using some quick on-line sources, we got bored.Â
Bryant said he knew the password to the schoolâs website, and suggested we go in and have a look around. Let me tell you, it was the most boring website Iâve ever visited.  So, just for fun, we decided to make it just a little more interesting. Â
        It worked. The website was so interesting that word got around. Every kid in the school must have visited that website to read what the teachers in our school really like.  Like, vampires, witches and ax-murders, you know, stuff like that. I thought it was brilliant, Mrs. Bentley thought we needed more punishment.
          So, to make sure we had learned our lesson, we were ordered to build a website for the kids of the school. Talk about a lot of hard work for nothing. Again, the site was too boring for anyone to visit. Then Morgan wrote a story about visiting aliens that was really funny. What was not so funny, was when a mysterious Colonel X emailed us with information on some weird happenings at a deserted air force base nearby. Should we have followed up on that information?
          No.Â
Did we? Â
Yes. Â
And now you know how it all started. You donât know how it ended yet, because neither do we. After finding and rescuing this cute, bald alien from a secret room on the base, we decided that it was too dangerous, just like the colonel warned us.
We meant to keep out of what was obviously none of our business, except for one small problem.
Seems our webpage was somehow meta-tagged by an underground alien fighting resistance group. Meta-tagging is when you are put on every search engine on the Internet, so that whoever hits the word conspiracy, our site pops in the top ten.
What this means is that now, is that whenever thereâs some kind of alien problem in our area, weâre told about it. Yeah, right. As if four thirteen-year olds are going to save the world from an alien invasion. But then again, we do our best.
Our next mission was to find six eight year-old cub scouts who disappeared while hiking in the nearby forest. The forest surrounds the McChord Air Force base just outside our small town. From what the scoutmaster told the news, first there was a bright flash of light and then the boys were gone. When the scoutmaster looked down at his watch, two hours had gone by, and he was still standing in the middle of the trail.Â
Talk about weird.
So here it was, exactly one day later, the first official day of our spring break, and we were planning on spending it in the woods. I gotta tell you, Iâm not crazy about hiking. There are a million other things I could be doing, most importantly, practicing baseball. I have plans on being a professional baseball player, not a private detective.  Except for one small fact; I know one of the boys that disappeared.Â
That means that I got to find him. There are some things more important than baseball.
Plus, we four have already had an adventure in those woods, so we know thereâs a lot more going on out there than what anyone is saying. So here we are sitting on the old tree house of Bryantâs, making plans on the big rescue.
âWhere are we going to even start?â Morgan said, shaking her head full of bright red curls.Â
âWhere the boys disappeared,â I said, trying to be patient. Morgan never made it easy. Sure she was smart--the smartest person I knew, but when it came to the easy stuffâshe just didnât get it. My mom called it not having any common sense. Well if it was so common, why didnât more people have it? Especially really smart people?
âWhat if a space ship beamed them aboard?â Crystal asked.
I shrugged. âWell, we have to start somewhere, and thatâs the last place they were seen.â
Bryant took a deep breath before speaking. He always liked to think things through first. âColonel X disappeared with the alien we rescued, somewhere in those woods, so there has to be something there. Maybe some kind of alien hideout.â
âYou, my man, have a point.â I grinned over at my friend who sat in the corner of the tiny tree house. It was pretty cramped since weâd grown up. At least everyone else had. I was still waiting for my growthâs spurt. I hated it that even the girls were taller than me. âSo letâs ride our bikes down there and see whatâs up.â
âI donât have very much time to spend on this hunt,â Morgan complained. âI have a report to do for biology.â
Crystal rolled her eyes. âKnock it off Morgan. You could do your homework in your sleep, and still get an A. I still have my report to do, and Iâm willing to put it off to save these boys lives.â
I grinned at Crystal. We got along fine. She cared as much about her singing as I did baseball. We understood each other. âSo, letâs get going,â I said, already climbing down the ladder. âWho knows how long these boys have.â I would later remember those words, and be amazed at how right I was.
Rescuing a half-dozen Boy Scouts lost in the woods should be an easy enough task for four middle school friends, but Sam and his buddies know that things are not as normal as they appear on the surface. Theyâve already dealt with aliens once before and theyâll have to do it again if they want to bring everyone home in one piece--and before the evil aliens can take over the world. But this time Samâs fortitude will be tested. Can one young boy overcome his temptation to embrace all the riches his heart desires, or will he lose it all to save his family and friends?
The Conspiracy Page: Sam's Reptoid Adventure by Robin Landry takes young readers on a wild adventure through an underground city. When Sam is separated from his friends, he gets to explore the city and learn its secrets, living in the lap of luxury while the unsavory city's tenants plan their world domination efforts. Sam tells his tale in a spunky and engaging tone that young readers will easily relate to. His dilemma resonates with the target audience and explores the importance of making the right decision even if you have to give up something you deeply desire. The book also lightly explores the morality of using power at the expense of others when Sam uses a mysterious device to save his friends.Â
While the book remains fast-paced from start to finish and includes age-appropriate themes, there are a few areas that need some work. Primarily, in the later chapters, there were quite a few contradictions. For example, in one scene a cage door is ripped off its hinges, but after the trapped person escapes, the victim is still able to slam the door shut. There were also a few editing issues that included a chapter that ended abruptly with an unfinished sentence and a section of italicized narrative that should have returned to standard font after the characterâs thought ended.Â
Still, the author wove a creative story that included imaginative devices, intriguing creatures, and edge-of-your-seat suspense. Therefore, Sam's Reptoid Adventure earns a four out of five. Readers looking for an engaging middle-grade novella may want to read the first book in the series, The Conspiracy Page: First Encounter, before reading Samâs Reptoid Adventure. This sequel can be enjoyed on its own but is not a true standalone story. Two additional volumes are set to follow Samâs Reptoid Adventure, and they will likely be as engaging and well-paced as Samâs story.