Best advice to fans of Book 1: read this one, wait—and hope.
Follow-up to Songs of the Earth (2012), the author’s promising fantasy debut.
Cooper adopts multiple narratives as she first generously fills in and recaps the back story before moving forward. Naturally, a MacGuffin, known as the starseed, is involved. Malevolent renegade Guardian Savin plots with a mysterious dark power to destroy the Veil separating the world from the Hidden Kingdom. Gair, the previous book’s protagonist, despite an all but irresistible urge to challenge Savin and still grieving over the loss of his lover and soul mate, has little to do until the latter stages, when he accompanies wise old Guardian Alderan to the desert kingdoms. In the north, Drwyn has ambitions to become Chief of Chiefs of the nomad tribes and reclaim the territories lost to the Empire when they were defeated 1,000 years ago. To ensure Drwyn’s success, Speaker Ytha unleashes her magic to gain the assistance of the imprisoned death-goddess, Maegern. Teia, Drwyn’s unwilling bed warmer, endures rape and beatings at his hands—but she does discover she has magic powers perhaps strong enough to defy Ytha. Emperor Theodegrance, having long abandoned the border fortresses, finds it impossible to believe that the nomads once again pose a threat. And old, ailing Preceptor Ansel of the Eadorian Knights, anticipating terrible battles to come, seeks to broaden the intake of the novices, to the outrage of conservative factions within the church. This vast expansion in the story’s scope comes not without cost to focus and intensity, though Cooper maintains the quality of her characters and writing. Still, readers may find the switch to plotlines that invariably end in irresolute cliffhangers disconcerting and maybe disappointing.
Best advice to fans of Book 1: read this one, wait—and hope.Pub Date: Feb. 19, 2013
ISBN: 978-0-7653-3166-3
Page Count: 496
Publisher: Tor
Review Posted Online: Dec. 16, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2013
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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