George and Edie remain admirably stoic heroes, but dry prose inhibits this conclusion’s pace. In a many-layered London, George and Edie are stuck in a timeless moment, the only humans who didn’t disappear when time froze. They’re not alone, though: Spits (metal and stone statues, mostly war figures) fight for good, while Taints (sculptures of non-human creatures) ally with the double-strong force of the dark. The dark has an Ice Devil and the ghoulish Walker, a grisly immortal who kills casually and steals life-forces. George and Edie’s tenacious fighting spirits are especially touching because of their separate histories of emotional loss, but the narration’s verbosity decelerates motion; for example, a falling object is “an angular jagged shape getting bigger with startling rapidity as it spun straight at them,” its speed slowed by description. Battle action and Edie’s nightmares also grind to a trudge. Only Edie’s time-travel views of the Walker torturing her mother move quickly and creepily. Mostly for fans of the livelier second installment. (Fantasy. 10-13)
Pub Date: April 7, 2009
ISBN: 978-1-4231-0179-6
Page Count: 480
Publisher: Disney-Hyperion
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2009
In a clumsy take on a well-used premise (see also the review of Winifred Morris's Liar, below), an at-risk city teenager is sent to his country relatives for attitude correction. To get Taylor away from bad friends, his mother dispatches him to the mountain home of his great-aunt and great-uncle near tiny Pandora, Texas. Although he carries a switchblade and shoplifts, Taylor makes an unconvincing juvie-in-training; despite failing English, he sends off long, glib letters to his friends—and vicious hate mail to his mother—describing how stupid and boring everything is, meanwhile pitching in with a will at the local grist mill and general store. He spends most of his wages on gifts for the children of an abusive, itinerant ``post-cutter'' and tree-poacher, teaching them to read in exchange for shooting lessons from the eldest of them, Jesse Lee. In a lachrymose climax, Taylor's mother shows up and confesses that she shot his father in a hunting accident, and Taylor owns up to a prank that left its victim in a coma. Garland (Cabin 102, 1995, etc.) only outlines the ending: Taylor is sentenced to a term of community service in a teen literacy center, spends his spare time at his victim's bedside, and gets an uplifting letter from Jesse Lee. An intriguing supporting cast goes to waste in a weak, uneven story. (Fiction. 11-13)
Pub Date: Oct. 1, 1996
ISBN: 0-15-200661-3
Page Count: 211
Publisher: Harcourt
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 1996
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A suburban family flees the breakdown of law and order following a massive natural disaster in this tense near-future tale. It’s 2008, and in the two years since Mount Rainier exploded, a steady rain of ash over much of the world has led to strict anti-pollution laws. Cars and trucks are virtually banned, electric power heavily rationed, fresh food has become a rare commodity—and horror stories of riots and rampant crime are starting to come out of the larger cities. Heading for a summer cabin, the Newells make a surreptitious exit from Minneapolis on a pedal- and wind-driven contraption cobbled together by 16-year-old Miles from bicycles and a sailboat’s mast. It’s a changing world through which they travel, in which small towns are closed or hostile, a fast-food breakfast costs nearly $100, and bandits on motorbikes prey on unwary strangers. Worse, the cabin, when they reach it, is already full of refugees who aren’t inclined to move on. As in his other books (Hard Ball, 1998, etc.), Weaver has made this a male-oriented story, in which the men do most of the planning, fighting, and bonding, while the women may not always be passive bystanders but tend to cause more problems than they solve. Stubbornly aliterate but gifted with both an eidetic memory and great mechanical aptitude, Miles makes a memorable narrator/hero—not infallible, but competent enough, in the end, to lead his family to a place of safety. An absorbing tale set against a disturbing, plausibly developed background. (Fiction. 10-13)
Pub Date: March 31, 2001
ISBN: 0-06-028811-6
Page Count: 160
Publisher: HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2001
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