The Doomsday Box by Herbie Brennan (Shadow Project book 2)

SPOILER ALERT! If you haven’t read the first book in the series, The Shadow Project, Stop! I don’t want to ruin the story for you.

Danny, Opal and Michael are back and still work for the top secret Shadow Project. A new member, Fuchsia, has joined their team and possesses some mysterious abilities. Their newest assignment turns out to be for the CIA and involves a reclaimed military project from the 1960s, Project Rainbow. The project involved time travel and teleportation but unfortunately the space-time distortion that was created couldn’t be closed. The US government sealed it shut until recently when the decision to reopen it was made. But in drilling the concrete bunker open, an alarm from inside near the rift goes off. The Shadow Project is brought in to see what or who triggered the alarm.

Opal checks out the rift’s chamber in an out-of-body experience and gives the all clear. The decision is made to continue opening the chamber. Everyone is in awe of the rift except for Fuchsia, who fights the urge to be physically sick. Mr. Carradine, the CIA liaison to the Shadow Project, seems familiar with the rift chamber. Soon Colonel Saltzman, the US military commander of Project Rainbow notices a box at the rift and opens it. Carradine calmly and forcibly tells him to put it back. Fuchsia feels like “Pandora’s Box” was opened.

Several hours later the members of the Shadow Project are placed under quarantine with the sudden death of Colonel Saltzman. The suspected cause is the Black Death. Mr. Carradine decides the only way to stop Cobra is to send the Shadow Project kids back in time to talk Cobra from leaving the box in the future. But can the four of them find Cobra in 1962 and successfully talk him out of doing something 20 years in the future? Can they survive Moscow during the height of the Cold War? Will they be successful and make it back to their bodies as well as same the world?

Visit Herbie Brennan’s website.

The Shadow Project by Herbie Brennan

Danny Lipman is a thief who has the misfortune of robbing the wrong house one night. What looked like an old run-down country house was actually a disguise for a top-secret government organization known as the Shadow Project. A joint venture between the CIA and MI6, the project uses teenage spies for its covert missions. The teens use astral projection or an out-of-body experience to travel around the world. When Danny accidentially witnesses a mission experience between Opal and Michael, project coordinators realize that Danny has a special talent that would be extremely useful to the project. When Sir Roland Harrington's daughter Opal disappears while on a mission, Danny is given a choice; join the Shadow Project or go to jail. A deal is made that is almost too good to be true.

Danny joins the project and is quickly thrown into investigating the Sword of Wrath, a terrorist organization. He soon finds out that both the Project and the Sword of Wrath are not what they seem. Opal is found but is still in great danger as is the Project itself. As Danny finds out more about what is going on, he also discovers some truths about himself and those around him.

The book is told in revolving points of view between Danny, Opal, Sir Roland, Michael and Danny's grandmother; who has a few surprises of her own. The next book in the series, The Doomsday Box continues Danny's story in January 2011. The reader is not left with a major cliffhanger dealing with the battle, but there are several unanswered questions and the quiet beginnings of a love triangle. This a the book for those readers who enjoyed Catherine Fisher's Incarceron and The Maze Rinner by James Dashner.

Visit Herbie Brennan's website.