Children of the Lamp: The Eye of the Forest by P.B. Kerr

John and Phillippa Gaunt are twin Djinnis living in the modern age with their mother and father in New York City. However, their mother, Layla recently lost her body to a volcanic explosion as she flew over the Pacific, and it was burned to a crisp. Making her way home in the body of a bird, she cast about for a new body to inhabit, and by luck, their housekeeper had fallen down the stairs in the apartment building where the twins lived and was in a more or less permanent coma. So their mother took over the body as her own, and has been living in it ever since.

The disappearance of her real body has caused comment among the neighbors, who suspect Mrs. Talbot (the housekeeper) of having done away with her and moving in and on the widower. So when a Policeman turns up to talk to her Layla's disappearance, she decides something must be done and goes to South America for major surgery to change her appearance back to that of her old body. To pass the time, John and Phillippa go to the House of another Djinn, Voydannoy, for a Djinnverso tournament.

Actually, only Phillippa is interested in the game, and John wants to go to several museums in the area. But when he tries to summon up the spirit of his friend, Mr. Rakshasas, whose spirit was absorbed by a suit of Jade, he inadvertantly summons up quite another spirit altogether- that of Manco Capac, a Djinn and former ruler of the Inca.

Manco Capac's spirit is angry at being disturbed and causes quite a ruckus in the house. But apparently there is a darker reason for the Spirit's anger: someone is seeking out the real lost city of the Incas, Paititi, and if they manage to do so, the end of the world could be unleashed. There is a prophecy about this, and the prophecy mentions twins, which Mr. Voydannoy thinks may refer to John and Phillippa. But they can't let others undo what John's action may have done, and they ask to come along. Along with them is their uncle Nimrod, his manservant, Groanin, a proper English Butler, Mr. Voydannoy and another young female Djinn who Phillippa met at the Djinnverso tournament named Zadie. Zadie made Phillippa promise to bring her along on her next adventure, so Phillippa feels obligated.

Global warming has interfered with the Djinnis ability to fly using whirlwinds, so they must take seats on a jet, just like normal humans. But once they arrive in Peru, they find that others are also seeking the lost city for reasons that have everything to do with greed, and that this party is ahead of them on the search.

As they deal with hostile tribesmen, giant animals and the hazards of the jungle and Peru itself (since it is cool there, their powers are not at their highest), they come to realize that one among their party is a traitor. But when Zadie's wish inadvertantly brings Pizarro back to life to slay the hostile indians who capured them, the twins will have to rack their brains and try their hardest to keep their rivals from unleashing a holocaust that could destroy the entire planet!

I've liked the Children of the Lamp series ever since I read the first one, "The Akhenaten Adventure", and changes continue to occur in the series, with friends dying and changes in the twins' home and family life. Now, familliar faces appear here in this new story, but some of the bloom was wearing off the rose for me. I enjoyed the story, but there was also a sense of, well, boredom, with the story.

Perhaps it's because one of the returning characters is John and Phillippa's former friend and half-Ifrit, Dybbuk. I didn't really care for Dybbuk all that much when he first appeared, and I didn't care for him here, even though he goes from mischief to outright evil during the course of the story. In fact, he just raised a yawn from me, even in his evil-self incarnation. I'm sure he'll turn up again, I just can't get excited about reading about him again.

Other than that, the story is engaging and entertaining, and despite my feeling of general malaise with the Dybbuk storyline, I'd still recommend this book, and this series, to kids and early teens. It's marketed as a children's book, but given how long it is, it's not suited for anyone under nine or ten. Not for anything objectionable, but for words that some kids will find too hard or confusing.