Raven's Gate is the first book in The Power of Five series, written by Anthony Horowitz. It is about a boy called Matthew Freeman, preferred calling Matt. He had no parents and lived with his aunt. After Kelvin, a supposed friend, coaxes him to steal DVDs and electronics from a so-called unpatrolled warehouse, a horrible crime is committed, and Matt is the prime suspect. Matt is then given a choice-go to jail, or be sent away on a program called the LEAF (Liberty and Education Achieved through Fostering) Project. He is sent to Lesser Malling in Yorkshire to live with Mrs. Deverill, a sinister middle aged woman whom Matt dislikes.
Matt is put to work and is a virtual slave to Mrs. Deverill on her farm called Hive Hall. He is sent to the chemist by Mrs.
...Deverill. When Matt arrives he discovers that the residents of Lesser Malling behave strangely and in a sinister manner. Matt then receives a warning from a man named Tom Burgess. The man tells him warn him to get away from Lesser Malling before it is too late. Matt visits him later and finds him killed by some kind of animal, with the words Raven's Gate painted on the walls. This is strangely covered up by the villagers when Matt calls the police, and no evidence of the murder remains.
During all this, Matt is having strange dreams about being stranded on a pillar of rock while a girl and three boys call urgently to him. Before the death of Tom and the discovery of an old power station called Omega One, Matt attempts to escape Hive Hall by stealing Mrs
Deverill's dead husband's bike. He attempts to bike away but he finds it impossible to escape, by some kind of darkness that doesn't allow him to go any further than the crossroads. But Mr. Burgess gives him an charm, in the shape of a necklace, that when he wears it, the darkness doesn't effect him. After all this, Matt decides to get information from the local library.
There he finds about about the stories in Greater Malling, the town next to Lesser Malling, by someone called Elizabeth Ashwood. In the book there's a chapter on Raven's Gate, but the chapter seems to be ripped out. He searches on the internet to find info on Raven's Gate. As soon as he presses ENTEr, an instant message box shows up, the person on the end of the line is someone called Sanjay Dravid, he asks Matt who he is, but Matt replies and askes if he knows anything about Raven's Gate, but when the other person doesn't reply, Matt turns it off and askes the librarian where he get more information.
The librarian leads him to the Greater Malling Gazette to find articles on Raven's Gate. there he meets Richard Cole, a journalist from the Greater Malling Gazette, he shares his story, and to see if he can work out the mystery. But of course, Richard doesn't believe him. Matt, later that night wakes to see a light where the Omega One is supposed to be. He decides to investigate, only to find a weird ceramony going on. He recognizes everyone there, they're all the citizens of Lesser Malling.
He gets caught and the people sends decayed hellhounds to find
him, dead or alive. While he's being attacked, he steps into a bog and starts to sink. Luckily he is saved by a person that is actually Richard Cole, Richard was driving by when he saw Matt. Richard pulls him out. After that incident, Richard believes his story, and says he'll help him and they both become friends. Since Matt suspects that there is something odd about Omega One, they meet with the previous owner, a powerful upper-class businessman named Sir Michael without success.
Matt then geos to visit Elizabeth ashwood, only to find that she died a year ago, but they meet her daughter, Susan Ashwood, a member of the Nexus, a secret organization of 12 people from all over the world. She advices them to go meet a person named Sanjay Dravid, the same one who he was talking to on the instant messaging. Therefore, Matt and Richard then go to meet Dravid, a member of the Nexus who tells Matt about the Old Ones, dark creatures who survived on human misery, and once sought to rule the world, but were banished to another dimension by five children with magical powers.
The Five, or the Gatekeepers as they are also known, then built an enchanted barrier named Raven's Gate to hold the evil creatures at bay, but some medieval peasants came to believe that Raven's gate was evil, tore down the stones that composed it, although the actual gate remained. According to Dravid, Mrs. Deverill and the villagers of Lesser malling are part of a worldwide society of witches who seek the return of the Old Ones.
Dravid tells Matt that he is a reincarnation of
One of the Five and has inherited their powers while Mrs Deverill and the citizens of Lesser Malling, who are all desendants of witches and warlocks want to sacrifice him on the night of Roodmas, the Black Mass and by effect release the Old Ones. Richard doesn't believes Dravid and he and Matt take their leave. However as they are making their way toward the exit they are attacked by dinosaur skeletons brought to life by Ms Deveril. Dravid is mauled to death, Richard is apparently killed and Matt is kidnapped by Mrs. Deverill and her hideous assistant, Noah.
Matt awakes in Hive Hall, locked into a small room. To escape the room, Matt slowly removes the floorboards in his room with a make-shift chisel made by releasing one of the legs of the bed and flatting one end, and covers them with his rug. When Noah enters the room to take Matt to Ms Deveril, he falls for Matt's trap and falls into the shed below, while accidentally the chisle goes through him, ending fatally. Matt uses this opportunity to run. He runs as far as he can, but eventually has to stop due to exhaustion. Taking a chance, he stops a passing car and asks for a lift.
But unfortunately for Matt, he has climbed into the car of Sir Michael, who we then find out is the leader of the people trying to resummon the Old Ones. Sir Michael takes Matt to Omega one. Once inside Omega One's inner sanctum, Matt sees Richard tied up and celebrates his friends life. But his celebration is short-lived as he is tied down to a stone slab
in the middle of a circle of runes. The runes protect everyone inside from the upcoming nuclear explosion. Just as Sir Michael is about to sacrifice matt to the Old Ones, Matt remembers that whenever he smells burning, he has gains special powers for a limited time.
In his mind, Matt goes back to the day his parents were killed and smells the toast that his mother burnt. This smell gives Matt the power to stop the knife from completely entering his heart and to break his and Richard's bonds. Using everyone's sudden surprise to their advantage, the pair escape only to be pursued by Ms Deverill. Matt's special powers have run out by the time he comes to fighting with Ms Deverill, so he gradually loses the fight. Richard comes to his rescue and pushes her into an acid bath, killing her horribly. They escape Omega One by jumping into an underground river beneath the building.
Unfortunately Michael had managed to prick Matt's skin, shedding a single drop of blood - just enough to open the gates which only allows one of the greatest of the old Ones to escape. Upon being released, the Old One kills Sir Michael but the pressure inside Omega One causes the building to explode, unleashing a nuclear explosion. However the void that is left when the gate was opened has to be filled, and this causes the void to draw in all the radioactive material, together with the Old Ones and the citizens. The break is sealed and the Old Ones are once again banished to the other world.
In the result, Matt continues to live with Richard before getting a
visit from Fabian, another member of the Nexus, who has come to talk to him about a second gate in Peru. Richard tells Fabian, Matt doesn't have to do anything he does not want to, but Matt knows his fate. The story continues in Evil Star, the second book in The Power Of Five. Opinion - I liked the book very much; very different to the ones I usually read. It's really creative, imaginative, very detailed and full of suspense. I would recommend it to anyone who likes reading. Description of characters:
Matt: Matt is a very unusual 14 year old boy who comes to know about his powers. His parents died when he was quite young so he started living with his half-aunt Gwenda and her husband. They got hold of his parents money and spent it on holidays etc. When the money ran out, they turned horrible to Matt and they always had arguments and fights. Gwenda's husband always blamed Matt for everything and said everything would be find if he hadn't been living with them. Matt didn't have friends in his school; only a 17-year-old guy who blamed Matt for killing the guard.
Matt was very clever and teachers tried hard to help him but gave up when he started skipping lessons. Sanjay Dravid: He was born in Madras in India. He had an international reputation and he had become a world expert on anthropology, ethnology, prehistory, and a dozen other related areas. He had written books and presented television programmes. He was a member of Nexus; the secret organization so he knew all about the Raven's Gate but eventually gets killed in the
story. He was in his late forties, as Matt thought. He had black hair neatly brushed and had dark eyes.
Richard Cole: He was in his twenties. Usually wore shirt and faded jeans. He had a serious, intelligent face. His hair was short, blond and scruffy. He was a journalist in Greater Malling but wrote about Lesser Malling but didn't get much work since hardly anything happened there. He worked with two other girls; each had their own territories. He studied at York University for three years and thought he'd get on to the Mail or Express but there were no job around. He couldn't afford to live in London so came back to York.
