Raven's Gate
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| Author | Anthony Horowitz |
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| Country | United Kingdom |
| Language | English |
| Series | The Power of Five |
| Genre | Horror, Fantasy novel |
| Publisher | Walker Books |
Publication date | August 1, 2005 (UK) June 1, 2005 (US) |
| Media type | Print Paperback |
| Pages | 268 pp |
| ISBN | ISBN 1844286193 (Paperback edition) Parameter error in {{ISBNT}}: invalid character |
| OCLC | 224729113 |
| Followed by | Evil Star |
Raven's Gate is the first book in The Power of Five series, written by Anthony Horowitz. It was published and released in the UK on August 1, 2005, by Walker Books Ltd and in the United States (June 1, 2005) by Scholastic Press under the adjusted series title The Gatekeepers. It is followed by Evil Star, released in 2006, Nightrise in 2007, and Necropolis in 2008.
A graphic novel adaptation, written for Walker Books by UK writer Tony Lee and drawn by artist Dom Reardon will be released in August 2010.[needs update]
Plot summary
Matt Freeman is a 14 year old boy who lives in Ipswich with his aunt, Gwenda Davis. While living with his aunt, he breaks into a warehouse filled with electronic equipment with his friend, Kelvin Johnson. After they get caught, Matt is sent to Yorkshire on the L.E.A.F. (Liberty and Education Achieved through Fostering) Project, which involves sending troubled children into the countryside to get away from city temptations. Matt's foster parent is a woman named Jayne Deverill, who lives on a farm with a farmhand named Noah.
When Matt goes down to the nearby village of Lesser Malling on a errand for Mrs Deverill he receives a warning from a strange man. The man warns him to get away from Lesser Malling before it is too late. So Matt tries to escape, and while trying to find some money he goes into Mrs Deverill's bedroom and finds a copy of the police report detailing his parents' deaths and his clairvoyant powers. Matt tries to escape Hive Hall by stealing the bike of Mrs Deverill's missing husband. He tries to ride away, but finds it impossible to escape, because which ever way he goes, he always ends up back where he started. He hears strange whispers and sees a light in the forest.
Later, Matt tries to escape again, but this time through the nearby woods, where he saw lights there the night before. He discovers Omega One, an abandoned nuclear power station, in the woods and meets the man from Lesser Malling again. The man introduces himself as Tom Burgess, and tells Matt to meet him at his house. Matt visits his house the next day and finds Tom Burgess murdered, with the words "Raven's Gate" painted on the wall. Matt runs away as fast as possible, then finds the police and tells them what he saw. They go back to the house where a woman named Miss Creevy says that Tom Burgess has gone to visit another farmer far away. He shows the police officers the scene where he saw Tom Burgess's body, but finds nothing. The words painted on the wall have been painted over.
Matt rides down to the library in Greater Malling, the next town on from Lesser Malling, to get information about Raven's Gate. He finds a book by someone called Elizabeth Ashwood, but the chapter on Raven's Gate is ripped out. When he searches on the Internet, an i.m. box appears, and a man called Professor Sanjay Dravid talks to him, asking Matt who he is. Matt tells him his name, then the pop-up window disappears. The librarian tells Matt to go to the Greater Malling Gazette to find articles on Raven's Gate, and there he meets Richard Cole, a young journalist working there. Matt tells his story to him, but Cole doesn't believe him. And oddly, when he leaves the gazette he finds Mrs Deverill waiting for him with Noah. They take Matt unwillingly back to Hive Hall.
Later that night, Matt wakes up to see another light coming from Omega One, even though he found out from the gazette that it hadn't been used in 20 years. Matt knows something is going on and explores the woods. Near the power station he finds on old witchcraft ceremony going on with all the inhabitants of Lesser Malling involved. The Power station lights are coming on and men are carrying radioactive material into the building. Matt is noticed and Mrs Deverill summons some dogs from a fire to kill Matt. While Matt is being chased, he accidentally falls into a bog and begins to sink. Richard Cole arrives and rescues him, as Matt uses his power to call for help. The dogs arrive and Richard kills them with a make-shift hand grenade. They then go back to Richard's house in York.
Richard now believes Matt's story because he remembers Omega One and says there were sections of the story he "couldn't get out of his head". Since Matt suspects that there is something odd about Omega One, they meet with the engineer who designed and built it, Sir Michael Marsh, but find out nothing except for how a nuclear power plant works. Matt and Richard then go to visit Elizabeth Ashwood, the author of the book in the library. Elizabeth Ashwood is revealed to have died, but her daughter Susan is there. She advises them to go meet Professor Sanjay Dravid in London after Matt demanding to know about Raven's Gate. She also tells them that she and Dravid are part of an organization known as The Nexus.
Richard and Matt travel to the natural history museum in South Kensington. Dravid tells Matt about the Old Ones. They were dark creatures who survived on human misery many years ago, and once wanted to rule the world, but were transported to another dimension by five children with supernatural powers. The Five, or the Gatekeepers, as they are also known, then built Raven's Gate to hold the evil creatures away. According to Dravid, Mrs Deverill and the villagers of Lesser Malling are part of a group of witches who seek the return of the Old Ones by opening Raven's Gate using witchcraft. Dravid tells Matt that he is a part of one of the five children who defeated the Old Ones, and has inherited their powers while Mrs Deverill and the citizens of Lesser Malling, who are all descendants of witches and warlocks, want to sacrifice him on the night of Roodmas, the day black magic is most powerful.
Richard doesn't believe Dravid and begins to leave with Matt. But as Professor Dravid returns to his office to contact the Nexus and get his keys, he is attacked and walks out of his with a cut in his neck and dies. Richard quickly takes his keys, but then is also attacked by dinosaur skeletons in the museum and at that moment millions of skeleton dinosaurs turn to life and attempt to kill Matt and Richard. Richard is trapped by a Diplodocus's rib cage and then crushed by a girder. Matt is recaptured by Mrs Deverill, who animated the dinosaurs to kill them.
Matt wakes in the barn at Hive Hall, and to escape he slowly removes the floorboards in his room with a make-shift chisel. When Noah enters the room to take Matt to Mrs Deverill, he falls through the hole made by Matt, which was covered by a rug, and dies because he fell on his knife. Matt runs away to the road, and a car comes towards him. It is the nuclear scientist who built Omega One, Sir Michael Marsh. But then Matt realises Marsh is a traitor and a witch, working with the inhabitants of Lesser Malling. Sir Michael takes Matt to Omega One, and reveals that it was made exactly on top of Raven's Gate. Richard Cole has survived and has been recaptured by the witches. They are taken to the inner sanctum, where Matt and the villagers are held in a magical protective circle, but Richard is left outside it to die in the heat.
Sir Michael Marsh reveals that he needs Matt's blood to complete the black magic ritual that will open Raven's Gate. Marsh is about to stab the knife into Matt when he focuses on his powers and surprisingly stops the knife. He defeats Marsh and frees himself and Richard. They escape to the lower levels of the power station but are followed by Mrs Deverill. She knocks out Richard and is about to kill Matt when Richard recovers and shpoves Deverill into a pool of radioactive acid. Then they escape from Omega One by jumping into an underground river under the building.
Back in the inner sanctum, the station's levels are at critical mass. The villagers panic and run out of the protective circle, killing them all and leaving Sir Michael Marsh alone. Marsh then realises there is a tiny drop of Matt's blood on the knife and uses it to open Raven's Gate. The King of the Old Ones rises from the gate and crushes Marsh. The power station then overloads and explodes, but all the heat and radiation is sucked into the gate, taking the Old Ones with it. The breach is sealed and the Old Ones are once again banished to hell.
Matt ends up living with Richard in York. They get a visit from Fabian, a member of The Nexus, who has come to talk to him about a second gate in Peru. Richard then says that they can't go to Peru, but Matt has to because he is One of the Five.