An undeniably imaginative story in need of more cohesive execution.
Knights-in-training Caedmon Tuggle and Ellie Bettlebump return in this follow-up to 2022’s The Witch, the Sword, and the Cursed Knights.
Good friends Caedmon, 13, and Ellie, nearly 13, have been given their first quest: to protect a royal wedding. But when banished monsters break through the protective spells and Princess Lorelei, another friend and knight-in-training, erupts in unregistered witch magic, Ellie takes the fall. At her trial, a frustrated Ellie is fitted with a permanent collar that mutes her magic. She later discovers she has dangerous Chaos magic inside her. Ellie meets with the sorcerer Malgwyn, to whom she owes a blood debt, and he tells her to steal the sword Excalibur, which he can use to obtain “the jewel from the belly of the beast.” Meanwhile, Caedmon is charged by the wizard Merlin to bring Lancelot back into the Knights of the Round Table, while Lancelot himself is after the same jewel. So begins the setup of this ambitious fantasy, which strives to pit the two friends against each other. There is imagination galore here, not to mention an abundance of mythical and legendary characters and a meaningful theme of loyalty to one’s friends. However, the story needs a stronger foundation to support and strengthen the fundamentals of the plot, which include a dizzying number of ideas, tenuous connections, and conveniently timed appearances.
An undeniably imaginative story in need of more cohesive execution. (map, list of realms) (Fantasy. 9-13)Pub Date: Sept. 12, 2023
ISBN: 9780316523509
Page Count: 432
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: July 13, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2023
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Rich and strange (and kitted out with an eye-catching cover), but stronger in the set pieces than the internal logic.
Chainani works an elaborate sea change akin to Gregory Maguire’s Wicked (1995), though he leaves the waters muddied.
Every four years, two children, one regarded as particularly nice and the other particularly nasty, are snatched from the village of Gavaldon by the shadowy School Master to attend the divided titular school. Those who survive to graduate become major or minor characters in fairy tales. When it happens to sweet, Disney princess–like Sophie and her friend Agatha, plain of features, sour of disposition and low of self-esteem, they are both horrified to discover that they’ve been dropped not where they expect but at Evil and at Good respectively. Gradually—too gradually, as the author strings out hundreds of pages of Hogwarts-style pranks, classroom mishaps and competitions both academic and romantic—it becomes clear that the placement wasn’t a mistake at all. Growing into their true natures amid revelations and marked physical changes, the two spark escalating rivalry between the wings of the school. This leads up to a vicious climactic fight that sees Good and Evil repeatedly switching sides. At this point, readers are likely to feel suddenly left behind, as, thanks to summary deus ex machina resolutions, everything turns out swell(ish).
Rich and strange (and kitted out with an eye-catching cover), but stronger in the set pieces than the internal logic. (Fantasy. 11-13)Pub Date: May 14, 2013
ISBN: 978-0-06-210489-2
Page Count: 496
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Feb. 12, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2013
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK TO SCREEN
Ponderous and protracted, with more work needed on both the world and the characters.
Two young teens with special powers face an ancient evil rising from the very heart of the Tinvali Empire in this doorstopping series opener.
Pursued by ruthless agents eager to exploit her mysterious ability to read peoples’ true feelings, Arden—eventually, after many chapters alternating between dual narrators—links up with foundling Mako, a budding music mage who’s carefully hiding the fact that he’s invited an invisible smooth-talking trickster spirit named Narrix to be his lifelong guardian. It seems that some of Narrix’s fellow spirits may be even nastier—and there are ominous hints that they might be sneaking back into the world. Several of Arden’s adventures do more to bulk up the page count than advance the plot in any meaningful way, and though (like many of Mull’s protagonists) she’s a dab hand at snarky banter, she otherwise comes off as a rather wooden character. Readers may find Mako’s journey and conflicts more absorbing, as he struggles to balance the joy of blossoming into an outstanding warrior under Narrix’s tutelage with the sneaking suspicion he’s made a bad choice of tutor. Whether his concerns are valid or not remains to be seen. The leads present white.
Ponderous and protracted, with more work needed on both the world and the characters. (Fantasy. 10-13)Pub Date: April 14, 2026
ISBN: 9780593712047
Page Count: 528
Publisher: Labyrinth Road
Review Posted Online: Jan. 19, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2026
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