Endymion Spring is getting quite a bit of buzz around the book world - even bizarrely being compared to the Da Vinci Code as a kidlit version. This is probably because it takes place at Oxford, involves books and is a huge whomping mystery that starts way back when and involves all sorts of changing the world type stuff.

Or maybe it does, and that's the problem I'm having.

First let me say that Endymion is a great book about books and libraries and loving books. It is clear that Matthew Skelton loves Oxford and knows the area incredibly well. He makes you feel like you're there when you read this book - like you can see it right along with Blake and his little sister "Duck" as they run through leaf strewn sidewalks and darkened corridors and brick covered buildings. And then there's references to books like this:

"Goblin Market", she repeated. It's one of my favorite poems, written by Christina Rossetti in 1862. It's about two sisters who are tempted to eat exotic fruit offered them by little goblin greengrocers. 'Come buy, come buy,' they sing to the girls, one of whom succumbs and then languishes from hunger. The language is wonderful. Lurid and alluring."

I totally have to read some Rossetti.

The story sounds gripping - Blake and his mother and sister are Americans at Oxford while she conducts some much needed research. His family is teetering on the edge of breaking up and the children miss their father terribly (he is back in the states). In the beginning, while waiting for their mother at the library a book seems to leap into Blake's hands - like it wants to be read. But when Blake looks at the pages they are blank, the only words are on the binding and they offer no hints as to what the book is about (or why it is blank), they read only "Endymion Spring". Blake wants to know more and because of the teaser introduction the reader knows something happened in Germany in 1452 that makes this particular book very very important. We don't know why but we know it mattered back then. It's up to Blake to figure out just what it wants with him now.

What follows is a series of adventures and dangerous moments as Blake tries to figure out just what the book is about and someone (or several someones) try to get it and/or get him and his sister first. There is the continued stress of his parents' disintegrating marriage and all of the fears that a young boy in a strange place with a strange mystery would feel. It is a great idea, it is set in Oxford for God's sake! And I can certainly recommend this book. I will be including it in my Sept column because it is one major adventure.....But.

But.

This book should have been great; it brushed up against moments of literary greatness, but there is something here, something too complicated to understand, something that doesn't reach plausibility, something that doesn't ring true or is too predictable or is just not there. Something that doesn't work and because of that I ended it thinking, well, this was good but.

But.

And although it is far better than many books I have decided not to review, I still wish it could have been better. I'm disappointed that it wasn't great and quite frankly I'm sorely worried that at some point in the future, a reader might feel the same way about my books. I wish I knew why this book didn't work, so I could be certain not to duplicate the same mistakes.

And I keep thinking I should review it, right? It's still a cool idea, just not perfect so I should recommend it, right?

Shouldn't I?

(And at least I'm not the only one who felt this way.)