More terrific combat scenes, but a bit too heavy on character development to fly at speed.
The third episode in the Skyward series sees red-hot space pilot Spensa Nightshade coming into her full powers as she battles both pirates and space monsters in a strange interdimensional nowhere.
Leaving her ongoing feud with evil galactic overlords on temporary hold back in the somewhere, Spensa passes through a portal to a realm where time and memories tend to slip away, bits of landscape randomly snipped from reality float like islands around a distant sunburst—and teeming hordes of disembodied, malevolent entities called delvers are relentlessly hunting her down. Fun as all the space-opera elements are, though, they continue a trend from the preceding volume in deadening the efforts of Spensa and sidekicks old and new to establish personal identities or backstories, wrestle with inner demons, or, in the case of the AI M-Bot, practice insults and deal with newly discovered emotions. A few wild aerial dogfights and larger battles later, however, Spensa has come into her cytonic superpowers, found out some crucial things about the delvers, and made her way back to the somewhere. Now for those overlords….McSweeney contributes a map, lovingly detailed sets of spaceship plans, and galleries of the multispecies cast members. Wild diversity of intergalactic body types notwithstanding, human members seem uniformly White.
More terrific combat scenes, but a bit too heavy on character development to fly at speed. (Science fiction. 12-15)Pub Date: Nov. 23, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-399-55585-5
Page Count: 480
Publisher: Delacorte
Review Posted Online: Aug. 31, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2021
Eragon continues his Rider training in this dense sequel. After the epic battle at Farthen Dûr, Eragon travels to the elven city Ellesméra to complete his magical education. There he learns from Oromis and Glaedr, a wounded Rider and his dragon who have been hidden for years, ever since Galbatorix overthrew the old order and slew the Riders. Meanwhile, inhuman servants of Galbatorix have invaded Eragon’s home village Carvahall, hoping to capture Eragon’s cousin Roran. Roran leads the villagers to join the Varden rebellion against Galbatorix’s tyranny. Another epic battle concludes the story and brings the cousins together just in time for a revelation of dark secrets. Suffused with purple prose and faux-archaic language, this patchwork of dialogue, characters and concepts pulled whole cloth from the fantasy canon holds together remarkably well. Dramatic tension is maintained through the interweaving of Eragon’s and Roran’s adventures, though too much time is spent on the details of Eragon’s training. Derivative but exciting. (Fantasy. 12-15)
Pub Date: Aug. 23, 2005
ISBN: 0-375-82670-X
Page Count: 704
Publisher: Knopf
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2005
BOOK TO SCREEN
SEEN & HEARD
Visually stunning but there are many better—because they are less rigidly traditional—versions around.
A stately rendition of the Arthurian legend, garbed in sumptuous dress.
With much use of rich golden tones and his customary fanatical attention to detail, Riddell fills every available space, from page corners to broad pictorial borders and wordless full spreads, with grave knights in extravagant full armor, slender damsels and crones in flowing silks, luxuriant castles and chambers, and frighteningly bestial giants and other monsters. Crossley-Holland’s retelling of the Matter of Britain is less impressive, though he does cover the main Christian-inflected storyline (with a few additions, such as the tale of Gawain and the Green Knight). By adding care for the Earth as a knightly task, he introduces a contemporary note. But the women are still malign witches, flighty incompetents, or temptresses—and along with having Sir Lancelot mansplain early on that “women are the same as us, but different” (“Strange creatures,” says Sir Tristram. “Their feelings are so strong,” whines Sir Geraint), the author doubles down later by mystically declaring that the Holy Grail is actually Mary, at once male and female. But if the sex all takes place behind euphemisms or closed doors, at least, there is much rousingly explicit gore in narrative and visuals, and both Arthur and the annoyingly all-knowing Merlin wind up as properly available for return comings. Some of the Round Table knights, such as Sir Lamorak, are depicted with brown skin.
Visually stunning but there are many better—because they are less rigidly traditional—versions around. (Illustrated fantasy. 12-15)Pub Date: April 11, 2023
ISBN: 978-1-5362-1265-5
Page Count: 240
Publisher: Candlewick Studio
Review Posted Online: Jan. 11, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2023
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