TALES OF NEWEL & DOREN

The prospect of earning smartphones as a reward spurs two satyrs onto a quest to rescue Fablehaven from an enraged gorgon in this series opener.

Mull returns to the world of Fablehaven with an adventure aimed at a younger audience featuring goat-footed, TV-obsessed Newel and Doren. The cousins face two crises: The gorgon Grumella has begun turning the hidden preserve’s mythical residents to stone in swathes, and unless the two can come up with a truly spectacular prank, they stand to lose the Satyr Games for only the fourth time since the competition’s 1711 inception. So, while chucking in a gratifyingly diverse cast of magical beings from a monstrous hydra, hostile goblins, and a lovely unicorn to a pair of grumpy but helpful sisters (one a swamp hag and the other a bog hag), the author sends his hairy heroes from Connecticut to Florida and various magical realms in search of a solution. They undertake inner quests, too; Newell, who frets about becoming “less satirical” and more “humanly” from all the contact with the outside world, receives savvy character-building advice from an eldritch doll. Existing fans will enjoy this action-packed story that works equally well as an introduction to Fablehaven. The small human cast is minimally described and largely racially ambiguous. Final art not seen.

A fast-paced, literally satirical spinoff.