Gregory and the Gray Prophecy
Gregory and the Gray Prophecy is the first part of the book series The Underland Chronicles by Suzanne Collins and was published in 2003 in the United States under the title Gregor the Overlander .
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Gregor, an 11-year-old boy, lives with his family in New York City . His father disappeared without a trace over two years ago. One day he and his two-year-old little sister Margaret, called "Boots", fall into a ventilation shaft in their laundry room into a seemingly endless void. At the bottom of this area they meet four foot cockroaches , known as crawlers, with whom Boots immediately make friends. The cockroaches explain to the two siblings that they are in the lowlands, a world below New York.
There the Unterländer , the people in the Unterland, live in a fragile peace with human-sized spiders , cockroaches and rats . The bats , which humans use as mounts, are their closest allies, whereas the rats wish humans to die.
Arrived in Regalia, the city of the people, they are greeted unkindly by the future Queen Luxa, an imaginary girl. Her grandfather Vikus, on the other hand, seems friendly. He leads Gregory into the “Hall of Prophecy ”, where Bartholomäus von Sandwich, the founder of the city of Regalia, wrote down his prophecies. Vicus considers Gregory to be the long-awaited warrior from the overland, who is mentioned in one of the prophecies.
Gregor, on the other hand, does not think about staying in the lowlands and tries to flee, which he fails. Only when Vikus explains that Gregor can find his father, who has disappeared two years ago, if he helps, Gregor agrees. Now Vikus, Luxa, Henry (Luxa's cousin), Solovet (Vikus wife) and Mareth (a guard), each with their bats, Gregor and Boots, set out to fulfill the prophecy. The group is joined by the two cockroaches Tick and Temp, who consider Boots to be a princess.
When the troops are halfway there, Vikus, Mareth and Solovet leave the troops to prepare Regalia for the forthcoming attack by the rat army. That's why Ripred, a rat, joins the group. An exciting journey through intertwined cave systems begins, in the course of which some members of the groups lose their lives, which was already mentioned in the prophecy. Eventually, the companions reach the rats' territory. There Henry turns out to be a traitor, namely an ally of the rats. As a result, the group is picked up by the Rat King Gorger and his followers. In order to save the others from certain death, Gregor draws all attention to himself by pretending to flee. The rats take up the chase, whereupon Gregor jumps into a deep ravine and the rats follow him. Henry falls down the cliff with him. Gregor thinks he has to die like rats, but Ares, Henry's bat, saves him. Unsettled by the death of their king, the rats break off their attack on Regalia and the companions return there. Celebrated as a hero of the lowlands, Gregor travels back to the overland with his father, whom he was able to free from the clutches of rats, and Boots.
reception
The book is aimed at older children, the recommendation “from 10 years” is given on the book cover of the German edition. It is designed as the first volume in a five-part series. Simone Leinkauf referred to the work in the Frankfurter Rundschau on March 16, 2005 as a “classic fantasy novel”. Andrea Wanner initially felt reminded of Franz Kafka's The Metamorphosis through the combination of a main character named “Gregor” with insects . Like Kafka, she believes that the author has described the insects precisely, registering tiny details and realistically. She does not belittle the animals, but also avoid obvious horror scenarios. It's solid entertainment and a real insider tip. In the United States, the book was broadcast on National Public Radio in 2005 .
Trivia
On February 12, 2011, Wetten, dass ..? a 14-year-old and his 12-year-old sister, they could assign the number of pages to each sentence from the book Gregory and the Gray Prophecy , and won the bet.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Review summary on Perlentaucher.de
- ↑ Real insider tip in the title culture magazine of March 3, 2005, accessed on July 25, 2018.
- ^ Excerpt on the National Public Radio website
- ↑ World Online Report on the bet