A role-playing game draws the ire of both a church group and a quartet of real wizards in this double-stranded, tongue-in-cheek tale from the author of Dunk (2002). To Mercer, a.k.a. Shath’dra the Warrior Mage, “Wizards of the Warrior World” is just a harmless after-school, weekend—and, OK, all-the-time-in-between—obsession. But his classmate Ed thinks otherwise, and after Ed’s critical essay for the school paper is picked up by the local news, so do the anti-witchcraft picketers who appear outside the town’s middle school. Mercer also finds himself being hounded by four ragged habitués of a nearby soup kitchen, who keep calling him “magus,” and seem desperately upset. Lubar sets up the picketers as straw figures, summarily dispersed once Mercer articulates counter-arguments—but it’s an expensive victory, for suddenly cautious school officials also prohibit playing the game on school property. Mercer’s outrage changes to excitement, however, when the shabby four turn out to be weak but genuine magic workers, stranded in this dimension until they can find a fifth wizard to help them open a way out. Mercer’s eagerness to oblige leads to a wild climax, in which the newly opened portal admits a lightning-charged monster—who is fought off only after the previously unassuming school janitor suddenly reveals himself to be a powerful guardian wizard in disguise. The multiple plots and subplots never do quite come together, but the tale moves along briskly to a rousing, twisty finish. Gamers and general light comedy fans will love it. (Fiction. 11-13)
Pub Date: April 1, 2003
ISBN: 0-399-23706-2
Page Count: 176
Publisher: Philomel
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2003
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Like its bestselling progenitors, a nonstop spinoff afroth with high tech, spectacular magic, and silly business.
With their big brother Artemis off to Mars, 11-year-old twins Myles and Beckett are swept up in a brangle with murderous humans and even more dangerous magical creatures.
Unsurprisingly, the fraternal Irish twins ultimately prove equal to the challenge—albeit with help from, Colfer as omniscient narrator admits early on, a “hugely improbable finale.” Following the coincidental arrival on their island estate of two denizens of the subterranean fairy realm in the persons of a tiny but fearsome troll and a “hybrid” pixie-elf, or “pixel,” police trainee, the youngest Fowls immediately find themselves in the sights of both Lord Teddy Bleedham-Drye, a ruthless aristocrat out to bag said troll for its immorality-conferring venom, and Sister Jeronima Gonzalez-Ramos de Zárate, black-ops “nunterrogation” and knife specialist for ACRONYM, an intergovernmental fairy-monitoring organization. Amid the ensuing whirl of captures, escapes, trickery, treachery, and gunfire (none of which proves fatal…or at least not permanently), the twins leverage their complementary differences to foil and exasperate both foes: Myles being an Artemis mini-me who has dressed in black suits since infancy and loves coming up with and then “Fowlsplaining” his genius-level schemes; and Beckett, ever eager to plunge into reckless action and nearly nonverbal in English but with an extraordinary gift for nonhuman tongues. In the end they emerge triumphant, though threatened with mind wipe if they ever interfere in fairy affairs again. Yeah, right. Human characters seem to be default white; “hybrid” is used to describe nonhuman characters of mixed heritage.
Like its bestselling progenitors, a nonstop spinoff afroth with high tech, spectacular magic, and silly business. (Fantasy. 11-13)Pub Date: Nov. 5, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-368-04375-5
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Disney-Hyperion
Review Posted Online: July 13, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2019
More absorbing, straight-arrow adventures set in the medieval, alternate world kingdom of Araluen and featuring the three apprentices introduced in The Ruins of Gorlan (2005). As the brutish wargals of Morgorath, Lord of Rain and Night, gather for an invasion, deft young Will and his strapping friend Horace discover that Morgorath has planned a complex feint that, unless scotched, will spell doom for the armies of Araluen. The third apprentice, diplomat-in-training Alyss, is relegated to a subplot in this outing, but is sure to play larger roles in future episodes. Flanagan explains more than he needs to but propels the plot forward at a heady clip, stirring in live-wire characters who are still learning the finer points of their assigned professions but prove equal to each challenge they face. He also adds to the company a young fugitive who is far more than the lady’s maid she claims to be, and closes with the requisite battle, a breathtaking single combat—and a dismaying lead-in to the next episode. It all adds up to a winning formula that should prove out to a long, steady run for this above average series. (Fantasy. 11-13)
Pub Date: June 1, 2006
ISBN: 0-399-24455-7
Page Count: 256
Publisher: Philomel
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2006
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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