ELISSA’S ODYSSEY

Elissa’s (endless) quest, which just kind of...stopped at the end of Book One, continues at a stately pace in Book Two. She leaves the desert and the protection of the Blue People but misses her own boat and must voyage on the Swamp Maiden with its cast of colorful characters. Elissa discovers that her Gift of understanding the speech of animals extends to plants, and she saves herself and her companions from evil men with firesticks by bidding the vines to bind them. The young Count Favian and Elissa dance around each other’s shyness and arrogance, and when, finally, they come to meet Elissa’s father Lord Falk once again and are about to go home—well, that’s for Book Three. While tiresome and plodding, with little characterization and clunky dialogue, anyone who got through the first part of the story will probably want to know what happens next (although they can probably guess). (Fantasy. 9-12)