Not a stand-alone episode, but definitely a pleaser for creature-feature fans.
Baldacci piles on the monsters as he sends Vega Jane and her hunky, clever sidekick Delph through the magical Quag in this follow-up to The Finisher (2014).
Escaping the walled town of Wormwood in hopes of finding the “truth” that lies beyond, the two teens befriend or, more often, flee or slaughter a laundry list of creatures: garms, amarocs, lycans, venomous jabbits, snake-haired alectos, green-blooded Soul Takers, dreads, grubbs, hyperbores, and numerous other residents of the broad, weirdly mutable wilderness. For variety, they are also twice captured—once by a mad subterranean king and then by the Quag’s 800-year-old Keeper—and Vega has to die to get across a certain river guarded by a skeletal boatman. These all turn out to be only temporary setbacks, however. In blatant bids to add appeal, Baldacci supplements the teeming cast of ravening boojums with a new companion who may be an ally, a rival for Delph, or both, plus familiar elements like a ring that makes its wearer invisible and Harry Potter–esque spells, a talking book that delivers only infuriatingly vague advice, and frequent Briticisms (“Wotcha, Vega Jane”). The flights and fights are all set pieces without much sense of suspense or danger, and there are so many of them that even bloodthirsty readers might echo Vega Jane’s own exhausted “Let’s just finish this.”
Not a stand-alone episode, but definitely a pleaser for creature-feature fans. (Fantasy. 11-13)Pub Date: Sept. 8, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-545-83194-9
Page Count: 448
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: May 17, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2015
The cyberthrills are stylized, but the focus is on action, and there’s just enough left unresolved to tempt readers onward.
A young video game whiz squares off against monsters and terrorists in a mad genius’ cyberworld to save America.
Ex–football star Rick gained world-class Xbox expertise during months of seclusion following the sudden disappearance of his scientist father and an accident that cost him the use of his legs, so he puts up only minor resistance when federal agents kidnap him and demand that he allow his mind to be wired into a MindWar Realm. The Realm’s creator, Kurodar, is lining up support from the Axis Assembly (“the gathered leaders of every tyranny on earth”) to wage cyberwar on the United States. Rick works to learn how to use spiritual force in the Realm to battle ravening security bots on the way to sabotaging a never-specified demonstration of Kurodar’s powers. Meanwhile, the bad guy himself pursues a certain American computer expert known as Traveler—whose real identity is telegraphed well before a big reveal in the late going. In the end, Rick’s immediate lot has improved, but Kurodar remains at large, and evidence of a traitor sets up the next episode.
The cyberthrills are stylized, but the focus is on action, and there’s just enough left unresolved to tempt readers onward. (Science fiction. 11-13)Pub Date: July 15, 2014
ISBN: 978-1-4016-8892-9
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Thomas Nelson
Review Posted Online: April 8, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2014
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Tailor-made for readers who prefer their coming-of-age fantasies thick, straightforward of plot, and unencumbered by...
A preteen with a hidden heritage runs from slavering Ghorhund and into the arms of his destiny when a huge bell that few can hear summons him to a parallel world.
Urged on by mysterious allies and hotly pursued by a giant black dog, Sylas is transported from a modern slum to another realm where the land looks the same but the people have a different history and practice four different kinds of magic. There, he falls in with the nearly exterminated adherents of the Fourth Way, which cooperates with nature rather than forcibly altering it like the other three, and becomes the object of a massive hunt by legions of bestial creatures made by Thoth, last and foulest of the ruling Priests of Souls. Why? Because according to an oblique prophecy, if Sylas can find his Glimmer, his other-world counterpart, he may reunite the two sundered planes. Along with folding in missing parents, coded writings, giant eagles and other comfortably familiar elements, Johnstone rarely breaks from a single storyline in this opener for (inevitably) a planned trilogy. Moreover, with the exception of one character playing a double game, he neatly divides the large supporting cast between warm, loyal, charismatic good guys and malformed, malign baddies. Stay tuned.
Tailor-made for readers who prefer their coming-of-age fantasies thick, straightforward of plot, and unencumbered by complications or moral conundrums. (Fantasy. 11-13)Pub Date: Feb. 1, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-00-749122-3
Page Count: 512
Publisher: Harper360
Review Posted Online: Oct. 21, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2014
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