Countdown to the Year 1000 (Dragon Slayers' Academy Series #8) »

It's the year 999 and the end of the world is coming—at least according to a mysterious prophecy. But then Wiglaf meets a strange boy who claims to have come from the future. It's Zack, star of the best selling The Zack Files™ series by Dan Greenburg, and he says he's living proof that there is life after the year 1000!

Children's Literature

Number 8 in the "Dragon Slayers' Academy" series, this one features a cameo by Zack from "The Zack Files" series who tries to convince dwellers in 999 that the world will not come to an end in the millenium. It seems he fell into a computer and was transported back in time when students in the DSA have been asked to gather up all the gold in dragon hoards so that Count Upsohigh from Castle Cashalot can make a golden hippopotamus, which will avert the curse. While Zack leaves without making an impact, the plot clanks along until the evil Count can be exposed as the gold-stealing charlatan he is. Too many characters spoil this broth which contains the usual soup of clever asides, hip dragons, and medieval school settings which seem to be thin renditions of Hogwarts. For better writing for the same audience, see Jon Scieszca's "Time Warp Trio" series. The story is also told from Zack's point of view in Dan Greenburg's How I Fixed the Year 1000 Problem (Grosset & Dunlap, 1999).