A shaky but promising start to a new sci-fi YA trilogy.
In Edstrom’s debut young-adult novel, aliens live beneath the Canadian Rockies—much to the surprise of a group of teenagers on an extended backcountry hike.
Sixteen-year-old Danny Michaelson and his sister, Em, embark on a hike, led by the grizzled, veteran mountaineer Harvin, with their friends Wa, Breyona, Shiv and Bronson. Six days into the hike, Danny and Breyona encounter a strange, shrieking alien creature with two heads—and are then rescued by a “bigfoot.” Later, a bigfoot takes the teens to a vast underground city called Undermountain, where the shaggy humanoids, who call themselves “the People,” make their home. The People turn out to be a benign alien race whose members take an oath to “do no harm,” and they’ve settled on Earth to protect humanity from the shrieking aliens, known as the tangeg. Edstrom creatively blends folklore and science fiction; the novel’s most original and best conceit is that the legendary bigfoot is an alien species—not a missing link in humanity’s evolution. The interaction between the species is absorbing, as is the novel’s examination of the philosophical problems facing a pacifist society under attack. Unfortunately, the human characters often lack this complexity and sometimes come off as two-dimensional. Shiv, for example, speaks in near-robotic phrases, such as “Let us keep our voices low so the others don’t overhear.” Although this quirk is likely meant as characterization, it instead rings hollow. However, this novel does have some engaging ideas, and it combines elements of young-adult adventure, cryptozoology and alien invasion, with just a touch of “Hollow Earth” theory, to create a rollicking tale of discovery.
A shaky but promising start to a new sci-fi YA trilogy.Pub Date: March 5, 2013
ISBN: 978-1470058876
Page Count: 354
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: May 24, 2013
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Rich and strange (and kitted out with an eye-catching cover), but stronger in the set pieces than the internal logic.
Chainani works an elaborate sea change akin to Gregory Maguire’s Wicked (1995), though he leaves the waters muddied.
Every four years, two children, one regarded as particularly nice and the other particularly nasty, are snatched from the village of Gavaldon by the shadowy School Master to attend the divided titular school. Those who survive to graduate become major or minor characters in fairy tales. When it happens to sweet, Disney princess–like Sophie and her friend Agatha, plain of features, sour of disposition and low of self-esteem, they are both horrified to discover that they’ve been dropped not where they expect but at Evil and at Good respectively. Gradually—too gradually, as the author strings out hundreds of pages of Hogwarts-style pranks, classroom mishaps and competitions both academic and romantic—it becomes clear that the placement wasn’t a mistake at all. Growing into their true natures amid revelations and marked physical changes, the two spark escalating rivalry between the wings of the school. This leads up to a vicious climactic fight that sees Good and Evil repeatedly switching sides. At this point, readers are likely to feel suddenly left behind, as, thanks to summary deus ex machina resolutions, everything turns out swell(ish).
Rich and strange (and kitted out with an eye-catching cover), but stronger in the set pieces than the internal logic. (Fantasy. 11-13)Pub Date: May 14, 2013
ISBN: 978-0-06-210489-2
Page Count: 496
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Feb. 12, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2013
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK TO SCREEN
A jam-packed opener sure to satisfy lovers of the princess genre.
Ice princess Lina must navigate family and school in this early chapter read.
The family picnic is today. This is not a typical gathering, since Lina’s maternal relatives are a royal family of Windtamers who have power over the weather and live in castles floating on clouds. Lina herself is mixed race, with black hair and a tan complexion like her Asian-presenting mother’s; her Groundling father appears to be a white human. While making a grand entrance at the castle of her grandfather, the North Wind, she fails to successfully ride a gust of wind and crashes in front of her entire family. This prompts her stern grandfather to ask that Lina move in with him so he can teach her to control her powers. Desperate to avoid this, Lina and her friend Claudia, who is black, get Lina accepted at the Hilltop Science and Arts Academy. Lina’s parents allow her to go as long as she does lessons with grandpa on Saturdays. However, fitting in at a Groundling school is rough, especially when your powers start freak winter storms! With the story unfurling in diary format, bright-pink–highlighted grayscale illustrations help move the plot along. There are slight gaps in the storytelling and the pacing is occasionally uneven, but Lina is full of spunk and promotes self-acceptance.
A jam-packed opener sure to satisfy lovers of the princess genre. (Fantasy. 5-8)Pub Date: June 25, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-338-35393-8
Page Count: 128
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: March 26, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2019
© Copyright 2024 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
bookshelf
