An often exciting adventure about a quest for a legendary object and a group of young people who come to realize their great...
The second book in Bowen’s (The Smiling Stallion Inn, 2013) Legends of Arria high-fantasy series.
This latest installment picks up where the previous one left off. Adoptive brothers Basha and Oaka, accompanied by their teacher and protector Sir Nickleby, are on a quest to retrieve Tau’s Cup so that Basha may fulfill his promise to marry a young woman named Jawen. But trouble lurks in the wilderness, as Doomba and his followers seek to stop the teenage brothers. When wolves attack, Sir Nickleby sacrifices himself to save the boys. Fato, a talking messenger falcon, then joins the pair on their journey and, later, two young women—Monika, whom the boys know from their home town of Coe Baba, and Gnat, an escaped servant girl—become part of the group. Together, they learn that they share a connection to the legendary Knights of Arria as they struggle to fight off enemies and continue their quest. Meanwhile, back in Coe Baba, the villagers (and especially the boys’ parents) worry about the young men. When soldiers pursuing Basha and Oaka invade Coe Baba, things come to a head. Action, danger and a large cast of characters keep this story moving swiftly along. However, the main players tend toward introspection and indecision, which can occasionally bog things down, as does occasionally clunky phrasing (“The action long since over, and the smell having alerted them to what to expect so that they might steel themselves, meant that they weren’t quite as shocked as they might have been, if they had come to a fight like this unawares as participants”). The first book in the series will give readers a clearer understanding of the events in this installment, but this sequel can be read as a stand-alone—even if the tale of Basha and Oaka is far from over at its conclusion.
An often exciting adventure about a quest for a legendary object and a group of young people who come to realize their great power and responsibility.Pub Date: March 16, 2014
ISBN: 978-1495369148
Page Count: 408
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: April 29, 2014
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A breezy and fun contemporary fantasy.
A tightly wound caseworker is pushed out of his comfort zone when he’s sent to observe a remote orphanage for magical children.
Linus Baker loves rules, which makes him perfectly suited for his job as a midlevel bureaucrat working for the Department in Charge of Magical Youth, where he investigates orphanages for children who can do things like make objects float, who have tails or feathers, and even those who are young witches. Linus clings to the notion that his job is about saving children from cruel or dangerous homes, but really he’s a cog in a government machine that treats magical children as second-class citizens. When Extremely Upper Management sends for Linus, he learns that his next assignment is a mission to an island orphanage for especially dangerous kids. He is to stay on the island for a month and write reports for Extremely Upper Management, which warns him to be especially meticulous in his observations. When he reaches the island, he meets extraordinary kids like Talia the gnome, Theodore the wyvern, and Chauncey, an amorphous blob whose parentage is unknown. The proprietor of the orphanage is a strange but charming man named Arthur, who makes it clear to Linus that he will do anything in his power to give his charges a loving home on the island. As Linus spends more time with Arthur and the kids, he starts to question a world that would shun them for being different, and he even develops romantic feelings for Arthur. Lambda Literary Award–winning author Klune (The Art of Breathing, 2019, etc.) has a knack for creating endearing characters, and readers will grow to love Arthur and the orphans alongside Linus. Linus himself is a lovable protagonist despite his prickliness, and Klune aptly handles his evolving feelings and morals. The prose is a touch wooden in places, but fans of quirky fantasy will eat it up.
A breezy and fun contemporary fantasy.Pub Date: March 17, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-250-21728-8
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Tor
Review Posted Online: Nov. 10, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2019
PERSPECTIVES
A charming and persuasive entry that will leave readers impatiently awaiting the concluding volume.
Book 2 of Hearne's latest fantasy trilogy, The Seven Kennings (A Plague of Giants, 2017), set in a multiracial world thrust into turmoil by an invasion of peculiar giants.
In this world, most races have their own particular magical endowment, or “kenning,” though there are downsides to trying to gain the magic (an excellent chance of being killed instead) and using it (rapid aging and death). Most recently discovered is the sixth kenning, whose beneficiaries can talk to and command animals. The story canters along, although with multiple first-person narrators, it's confusing at times. Some characters are familiar, others are new, most of them with their own problems to solve, all somehow caught up in the grand design. To escape her overbearing father and the unreasoning violence his kind represents, fire-giant Olet Kanek leads her followers into the far north, hoping to found a new city where the races and kennings can peacefully coexist. Joining Olet are young Abhinava Khose, discoverer of the sixth kenning, and, later, Koesha Gansu (kenning: air), captain of an all-female crew shipwrecked by deep-sea monsters. Elsewhere, Hanima, who commands hive insects, struggles to free her city from the iron grip of wealthy, callous merchant monarchists. Other threads focus on the Bone Giants, relentless invaders seeking the still-unknown seventh kenning, whose confidence that this can defeat the other six is deeply disturbing. Under Hearne's light touch, these elements mesh perfectly, presenting an inventive, eye-filling panorama; satisfying (and, where appropriate, well-resolved) plotlines; and tensions between the races and their kennings to supply much of the drama.
A charming and persuasive entry that will leave readers impatiently awaiting the concluding volume.Pub Date: Feb. 4, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-345-54857-3
Page Count: 592
Publisher: Del Rey/Ballantine
Review Posted Online: Nov. 24, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2019
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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