Review by Frank Plowright

Ram is a nervous kid lacking self-confidence, and attends karate classes. However, there’s more than just instruction going on, as he and his mate Jalen discover when they jump through a portal to another world charged with saving their instructor’s daughter.

David Velasquez is a fine cartoonist who creates likeable characters and lays the pages out for dynamic effect, but the storytelling isn’t always clear. When Jalen jumps through a portal we don’t know Ram has followed him until seeing him on the following page, and confusion manifests again right near the end. Velazquez also gets carried away with the possibilities of digital effects, which impedes the art rather than lifting it to another level as intended.

Jalen and Ram find themeselves in a place where by our standards strange is the new normal, with writer Karl Fields dropping an early reference to Alice in Wonderland. Fields follows that story’s episodic nature as puzzles, dangers and traps play out when Jalen meets all sorts of different people. There’s a clever emotional undercurrent of uncertainty, as while Jalen appears confident he doesn’t know who can be trusted, and he carries a deep scar around with him.

It seems at times as if both Fields and Jalen have lost sight of the original mission, but as this is a coming of age story Fields circles back to it and still has plenty of surprises left for the finale.

Any young reader can enjoy The Accidental Warriors, which constantly prods the imagination inviting readers to decide what they would do in Jaden’s place. It ends unpredictably, but satisfyingly, and the door is left open for a sequel, which would be welcome.