The Paladin Prophecy

By: Mark Frost

The main character in this story is Will West. When the book begins, he lives in Ojai Valley, California, and he has been instructed by his parents to prevent himself from appearing extraordinary. Ironically, he is extraordinary; he can run at lightning speed for unlikely long periods of time with relative ease. He has the ability to make other persons think or do something entirely different than the other person was initially planning. He also has an unbelievable ability to learn everything about another person during a first encounter by simply watching the other person’s characteristics. When he first meets Brooke, a fellow student at The Center For Integrated Learning, he practically tells Brooke her life story before she has the chance to speak. Will had neither met, nor read about Brook, he knew everything about her after simply observing her behavior for a few minutes. Will is unbelievably brilliant. His standardized school testing scores are high enough to provide him a free-ride scholarship to The Center For Integrated Learning: a private high school for gifted young adults. Unfortunately, Will never had the opportunity to show his talents at his prior high school because he was informed by his parents to remain under-the-radar. However, Will secretly decides to move to his new school because he realizes something has happened to his parents. Near the beginning of the book, his parents act odd, and they attempt to prevent Will from living his own life, but his parents change drastically throughout the book. Will quickly learns that his parents have been captured by “Caps”: large men in black hats and unmarked cars. The caps are after him as well, but he escapes to his new school before the caps find him. However, he soon learns that his new school is somehow involved with the caps, and Will must use his extraordinary abilities to prevent the caps from catching him. In the process, he meets other students at his new school and for the first time in his life, he develops friendships with multiple students: Nick, Ajay, Brooke and Elise.

The setting of this book takes place in several different locations. However, the beginning and every reference to the character named Nando, takes place in Ojai Valley, California. The book mentions the area’s original inhabitants were Indians and the name of the city means the Valley of the Moon. The main character, Will West, initially lives in Ojai Valley, and he attends high school there, but he is originally from Albuquerque, New Mexico. Even though Will attempts to keep a low profile at school, he learns that his state standardized academic testing scores were higher than 99.9 percent of high school students across the country. Therefore, Will is given a scholarship to attend a private high school in Wisconsin for the nation’s most gifted students: The Center For Integrated Learning. Will accepts the scholarship and moves to Wisconsin: this is the first time Will has experienced a cold climate. The high school campus is quite large, consisting of dozens of buildings. The campus is by a lake, woods are behind the lake, and there’s an island in the middle of the lake with a large, gothic style castle present. As the book proceeds, you learn there are passageways underground and secret tunnels connecting the school campus to the castle on the island.

As the story developed, I learned many things about Will West, but primarily his ability to problem solve in difficult situations. When emergencies occur, the hardest thing for anyone is to remain calm and assess the situation; Will does more than assess situations during emergencies, he pinpoints the reasoning behind the emergencies along with solutions. As the book progresses, the reader learns that Will can interpret thoughts of other characters by focusing, and he can ultimately make decisions for other characters when he thinks about actions that other characters should take. For instance, Todd Hovak, a character who dislikes Will, attempts to punch Will while Hovak’s friends are holding Will at bay. Will thinks in his mind that Hovak should punch his friends rather than himself; long behold, Hovak punches his own friends rather than Will. Even though Will’s mind-control abilities are fascinating, it’s his ability to successfully problem solve that sets him apart from his peers. The reader will eventually learn that every student at Will’s new school possesses some type of unusual talent, photographic memory for instance, and Will has the ability to easily solve problems with minor clues. Without giving away the ending, Will deduces the meaning of the Paladin Prophecy by reading Roman numeral numbers equaling 1990 and 4 written on a Metallic case. Most readers will likely be unable to decipher the Paladin Prophecy, even though a great deal of clues are presented throughout the book, but Will only needed Roman numerals to decipher the Paladin Prophecy.

The Paladin Prophecy by Mark Frost is a quick paced, action-packed young-adult novel. Unfortunately, there is so much going on in this novel that it would be impossible to explain the entirety of the plot; therefore, I’m presenting an extremely condensed version of the book’s plot. First, the book begins by explaining how Will has been raised to appear unordinary to his fellow students from his parents. Will never asks why he shouldn’t display his talents, but he never refutes his parent’s bizarre rules. Every morning before school, he runs for enjoyment, and one morning during his run, he notices several unmarked cars following him. He attempts to get away from them, but they continually follow. Fortunately, he escapes, and later he notices his mother talking to individuals sitting in the unmarked cars. Then Will speaks with his mother, and he notices drastic changes in her attitude and characteristics; Will’s father is out of town when the book begins, so Will doesn’t have the opportunity to converse with his father. Will notices a large scar behind his mother’s ear, and he believes the scar might be the culprit for her bizarre behavior. Later in the book, you learn for certain the scar led to her unusual behavior; there will be additional characters in the book who will get the same scar and their characteristics will also be severely altered.

Soon afterwards, Will learns that he has been given a free-ride scholarship to a private high school for gifted students: The Center For Integrated Learning. Later that evening, the unmarked cars begin chasing Will again, and he realizes something is terribly wrong. He contacts his new school, and they give him permission to attend immediately; he instantly travels from California to Wisconsin with the hopes of escaping the unmarked cars and their drivers. During his flight, he notices bizarre, gremlin-like animals, trying to attack the plane, but another man appears and fights the gremlins away, keeping Will and his flight safe. Later, Will learns that the man who fought the gremlins is named Dave, he was a trained jet pilot fighter in World War 2, but he didn’t survive a certain battle. He is now Will’s guardian angel. Will also learns that the gremlins and people in the unmarked cars are also non-living entities, but those non-living entities are attempting to kill Will because of information Will’s father possesses. Still, Will thinks about his father often: his dad provided Will with a list of 98 rules to live his life by, and Will often references certain rules that correspond with his situations.

When Will finally arrives at his new school, he is given the opportunity to show his talents: he quickly makes a joke out of the school’s elite cross country team with his lightning speed and relentless stamina. More importantly, he makes friends for the first time in his life: he develops a close bond with the four students whose living quarters are closest to his: Ajay, Nick, Brooke and Elise. He spends a lot of time with Ajay, a technically savvy individual and Nick, a fearlessly strong young man. Before long, he becomes best friends with both Ajay and Nick. He enjoys the company of Elise and Brooke, but he ultimately develops a crush on Brooke throughout the novel: the feeling is surprisingly mutual.

Unfortunately, Will and his friends become targets of the school’s two primary bullies: Lyle and Todd Hovak. Will encourages his group of friends to stand up to the bullies, and eventually Will’s friends do stand up to Lyle, Todd and their fellow bullies. Will believes that both Lyle and Todd are involved with the men from the unmarked cars who have been chasing him, and later he notices that Lyle has the same scar that his mother had, therefore proving his belief that Lyle and Todd has an association with the men from the unmarked cars. Ironically, the group from the unmarked cars and the group Lyle and Todd represent are equally related to the school Will begins attending. Will briefly learns about something called the Paladin Prophecy and how a former student who was trying to learn about the prophecy had gone missing. Will thought The Center For Integrated Learning would help him escape the men from the unmarked cars, but his new school ultimately creates more chaos for him. While Will attempts to find the connections between the groups trying to kill him, he learns from the school doctor that his blood is unique which provides inhuman-like physical and mental development. His physical and mental development is responsible for his unbelievable running skills and his ability to problem solve so accurately and efficiently. As the novel reaches its conclusion, Will relies on his friends, his guardian angel, his dad’s rules of life, along with his advanced physical and mental abilities to remain alive, discover the connection between his new school along with the men from the unmarked cars and to decipher the Paladin Prophecy.