Gordon Korman. The Dragonfly Effect. New York: Scholastic, 2015. Print.

Gordon Korman keeps cranking the books out. The Dragonfly Effect is the third book in the Hypnotists series about Jackson “Jax” Opus, a fourteen year old who has inherited hypnotic abilities. Once again, Jax has to face off Elias Mako, who has developed a hypnotic scheme for world domination.

Jax’s ability is like that of Obi-wan Kenobi in the famous line from Star Wars: “These aren’t the droids you’re looking for.” Jax is one of handful of people (including Mako, alas) who can hypnotize people indirectly—through television, video camera, mirrors, the Internet.

The Dragonfly Effect opens with the Opus family in protective custody of the U. S. Army. One reason is indeed protection. At a secret wing of a remote fort, they are protected from the likes of Dr. Mako. But the Army also wants to experiment with hypnotism to see if it can be a useful weapon, perhaps getting a whole population to willingly submit without firing a shot. This top secret project was known as HoWaRD, Hypnotic Warfare Research Department.

In addition to Jax and six adults in this program, there is also Wilson DeVries, the bully who tormented Jax back when they were in school together in New York City. There is also eight year old Stanley X, an orphan who has powers that none of the others can match.

The title, of course, is a play on the term “the butterfly effect,” in which a supposedly insignificant event, like the flapping of a butterfly’s wings, have completely unpredictable and catastrophic consequences. Without giving too much away, perhaps we can say the dragonfly effect is similar, but its effect is more beneficial or at least sparing the catastrophe.

The Dragonfly Effect is an entertaining science fiction story. It is rooted in reality if we accept the “superpowers” the hypnotists have. Like the first book in the series, The Hypnotists, it does not have the humor which typifies so many of Korman’s stories. There are some funny lines, but they are mostly incidental to the tale. Still, it is a deadline thriller. As I noted in my first blog entry on a Korman book, “[h]is protagonists are fairly typical young teens who find themselves in unusual situations.” If Jax and his New York friends Tommy and Kira can’t stop Mako in time, will it truly be the end of the world?