In Jones's latest multilayered fantasy, Earth — unbeknownst to its inhabitants — is a minor planet manipulated from distant Homeworld by an oligarchy of five Reigners, who exploit the entire galaxy for economic gain. Earth's precious flint is vital to their technology; when a British hacker creates a disturbance by using "one of those old machines" to create a football team of real historical personages, the Reigners are drawn, one by one, to the scene. There, greengrocer's daughter Ann Stavely has become involved with the extraordinary characters appearing in the wood: Mordion, with skull-like features but a beatific smile, has emerged from a long entrapment; Hume — who springs from the earth where Mordion's blood mingles with Ann's after a minor injury — is a different age each time she meets him. Entering the present-day wood, the Reigners are absorbed into Arthurian Britain, where each persona (including dragons and a number of robots and machines) has several intricately linked identities — past, present, extraterrestrial, mythological. For those who enjoy the intellectual exercise of sorting them out, and of pondering whether God is in the machine or Christ is an ironic parallel to the Reigners' Servant (who bears the guilt of crimes he's forced to commit), the game offered here is unsurpassed; meanwhile, the grappling of the heroes-in-disguise with the avaricious (and chillingly human) Reigners and the emergence of their kindlier potential successors makes an elaborate, fascinating, and suberbly crafted adventure. (Fiction. 12+)
Pub Date: April 1, 1994
ISBN: 006029888X
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Greenwillow Books
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 1994
Wrought with admirable skill—the emptiness and menace underlying this Utopia emerge step by inexorable step: a richly...
In a radical departure from her realistic fiction and comic chronicles of Anastasia, Lowry creates a chilling, tightly controlled future society where all controversy, pain, and choice have been expunged, each childhood year has its privileges and responsibilities, and family members are selected for compatibility.
As Jonas approaches the "Ceremony of Twelve," he wonders what his adult "Assignment" will be. Father, a "Nurturer," cares for "newchildren"; Mother works in the "Department of Justice"; but Jonas's admitted talents suggest no particular calling. In the event, he is named "Receiver," to replace an Elder with a unique function: holding the community's memories—painful, troubling, or prone to lead (like love) to disorder; the Elder ("The Giver") now begins to transfer these memories to Jonas. The process is deeply disturbing; for the first time, Jonas learns about ordinary things like color, the sun, snow, and mountains, as well as love, war, and death: the ceremony known as "release" is revealed to be murder. Horrified, Jonas plots escape to "Elsewhere," a step he believes will return the memories to all the people, but his timing is upset by a decision to release a newchild he has come to love. Ill-equipped, Jonas sets out with the baby on a desperate journey whose enigmatic conclusion resonates with allegory: Jonas may be a Christ figure, but the contrasts here with Christian symbols are also intriguing.
Wrought with admirable skill—the emptiness and menace underlying this Utopia emerge step by inexorable step: a richly provocative novel. (Fiction. 12-16)Pub Date: April 1, 1993
ISBN: 978-0-395-64566-6
Page Count: 208
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 1993
In addition to the supernatural elements, Brosgol interweaves some savvy insights about the illusion of perfection and...
A deliciously creepy page-turning gem from first-time writer and illustrator Brosgol finds brooding teenager Anya trying to escape the past—both her own and the ghost haunting her.
Anya feels out of place at her preppy private school; embarrassed by her Russian heritage, she has worked hard to lose her accent and to look more like everyone else. After a particularly frustrating morning at the bus stop, Anya storms off, only to accidentally fall down a well. Down in the dark hole, she meets Emily, a ghost who claims to be a murder victim trapped down in the dank abyss for 90 years. With Emily’s help, Anya manages to escape, though once free, she learns that Emily has traveled out with her. At first, Emily seems like the perfect friend; however, once her motives become clear, Anya learns that “perfect” may only be an illusion. A moodily atmospheric spectrum of grays washes over the clean, tidy panels, setting a distinct stage before the first words appear. Brosgol’s tight storytelling invokes the chilling feeling of Neil Gaiman’s Coraline (2002), though for a decidedly older set.
In addition to the supernatural elements, Brosgol interweaves some savvy insights about the illusion of perfection and outward appearance. (Graphic supernatural fiction. 12 & up)Pub Date: June 7, 2011
ISBN: 978-1-59643-552-0
Page Count: 224
Publisher: First Second
Review Posted Online: April 18, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2011
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