This book is definitely a thriller. The pace of the book travels so fast that the reader is breathless throughout the reading. However, the fast pace does not cover the bad writing, and Unholy Grail reads a little like the Da Vinci Code without Da Vinci. To start the book, two people are separately lured into Grand Central Station and one is shot while the other is framed for it. Meanwhile a renegade priest is killing other priests and marking them with stigmata. There's also a mysterious Circle of Five, involved with maintaining the bloodline of Jesus Christ and Mary Magdalene.
Ten years ago, superheroes roamed the earth, bringing evil to justice and saving humanity from itself. But in a battle against a supervillain, Ragnarok, all the superheroes lost their powers and were effectively lost forever. But now, it seems Danny and Colin, two best friends, have abilities that only superheroes could. Caught up in a whirlwind of conspiracy, the two and their "superhero" parents are kidnapped and sent to America, where Colin escapes and is set against not only trained soldiers but the mystery that is America.
Matt Cruse, now a part of the Airship Academy, is sent on a week-long voyage with the Flotsam, a dirty ship with a sullen crew and a mentally-unstable captain. The captain orders the ship into a raging storm, and as they plow through, they get a glimpse of the famous Hyperion, a ship known to have untold wealth aboard. Matt plots the coordinates and when he returns home, he sets off with Kate de Vries and a mysterious gypsy girl to recover the ship. In the air they meet deadly pirates searching for the Hyperion as well, and dangerous air beasts.
Lurulu is an account of the adventures of the Glicca, a space freighter, and its unforgettable crew. In each of the eccentric vignettes, the crew encounters fascinating natives and their strange cultures. Captain Malfoor tracks down Loy Tremaine on the beautiful planet Fluter. Tremaine has killed Malfoor's father and kidnapped his mother, in addition to upsetting the puritanical Flauts, the inhabitants of Fluter.
Justin Monroe and his mother travel to an alternate United States where the Constitution was never created. Each state has broken off and formed its own country. Becky Royer, a young girl from the country of California, journeys with her grandmother to her hometown, Elizabeth, Virginia, so her grandmother can say her final goodbyes. She meets Justin there just as war breaks out between Ohio and Virginia. Ohio releases a tailored virus, trapping the two in Virginia under quarantine. Becky can't return to California, and Justin can't return to the United States he calls home.
Susan's older brother Gary falls ill and wheelchair-bound and she is forced to care for him. Unhappy about her new responsibility, she complains incessantly, especially when he makes her wheel him to the garden, a place that irrationally scares Susan. But when strange things happen in the garden, such as the discovery of a maze that they couldn't previously find, that make her brother healthier, she starts to despise the garden a little less. But every time they enter the maze, things change unpredictably in the world outside.
