This series opener has appealing motifs but is tedious and longer than necessary. Twelve-year-old George gets in trouble on a museum field trip, stalks outside and angrily swings at a small stone carving. Shockingly, the dragon’s head comes off in his hand. From that moment on, stone creatures are after him. A stone pterodactyl slides off the building and gives chase; as George races madly away, three stone salamanders join the pursuit. A statue of a Gunner from the Great War steps in and blasts the creatures to bits, but the respite is temporary. George has upset a balance he doesn’t understand. His quest to put things right is aided by the Gunner and also by Edie, a girl of George’s age who channels the past. They move through London, fighting desperately and seeking explanations from sphinxes and statues. Fletcher’s action sequences are disappointingly dry. More intriguing are his philosophies about stone and “makers” (builders), and the protagonists’ family histories, but these are too sparse, leaving the whole unsatisfying. (Fantasy. 10-12)
Pub Date: May 1, 2007
ISBN: 978-1-4231-0175-8
Page Count: 464
Publisher: Hyperion
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2007
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Readers may come away from this hefty series opener, about a seemingly ordinary British lad who is sent to a special boarding school after discovering that he has magical powers, with a distinct sense of déjà vu. It seems that England had a magical Red King seven centuries ago, who disappeared after his wife died and five of his ten children went bad. All ten children are still around in various guises, and, along with occasional descendants, can wield parts of the Red King’s magic—so once ten-year-old Charlie reveals that he can hear the people in photographs talking, the nasty camp swoops down to bustle him off to Bloor’s Academy. Within Bloor’s gloomy stone walls he meets friends and enemies, some of whom are also “Endowed,” as he struggles to learn the school’s routines, helps rescue a kidnapped schoolmate whose mind has been clouded by the baddies, discovers that his father may not be dead as he’s been led to believe, and is stalked by a werewolf. The climactic battle, however, occurs offstage, and though several characters turn out not to be who or what they seem, the revelations are thoroughly telegraphed. The author leaves a few threads dangling, but underestimates her audience if she thinks she’s left any major surprises for future episodes. Charlie’s adventure adds up to a formulaic, thinly disguised placeholder for the next Harry Potter; a far cry from Nimmo’s eerie, atmospheric Griffin’s Castle (1997). (Fiction. 10-12)
Pub Date: March 1, 2003
ISBN: 0-439-47429-9
Page Count: 416
Publisher: Orchard/Scholastic
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2002
BOOK TO SCREEN
His mother’s a hero, his father’s a legend, and he’s named after the mythical griffin—half eagle, half lion. But Griffin, the newborn bat, is not strong, powerful, or heroic. He is a “little bat who wasn’t special in any way.” Better to have been named Twig or Weed, he tells himself. When Griffin fails in his one attempt at impressing his friends by stealing fire from the humans, he horribly burns his best friend Luna and sets into motion a harrowing journey through the Underworld of the evil bat lord, Cama Zotz. This third installment in the series continues the story of Shade, who arrives on the scene in time to attempt a rescue of Griffin. Lurking in the Underground with Shade is Goth, the cannibal bat from Sunwing (2000). At the same time, Lord Zotz has a deadly ambition: “I will rise and kill the sun. The two worlds of the living and the dead will be collapsed into one, and I will reign.” Oppel’s writing is beautiful in its evocation of the bat world, especially of flights through the moonlit forests, the bat community at Tree Haven, and the bats’ use of echo vision. However, there is a problem with voice in the story. When the author has Griffin talking to himself about the effects of an earthquake, the bat says, “What we have here is a cave-in kind of situation.” Later, he notices “an escape kind of situation.” Readers are told that Shade’s facing a council of elders “freaked him out.” Such inelegant writing is unfortunate in the midst of a fine tale that fans of the series will eagerly anticipate. (Fiction. 10-12)
Pub Date: Feb. 1, 2003
ISBN: 0-689-84993-1
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2002
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