Changing the cast, but taking up his larger tale where Wormwood (2004) left off, Taylor pits a teenaged would-be highwayman and several ragged confederates against a cruel, cursed lord and a ruthless preacher poised to release a swarm of flesh-eating insects. After the mastema, an anything-but-Subtle knife with both bloody proclivities and the ability to unlock paradise, falls into his grimy hands, Jonah becomes the target of its all-powerful former owner, Lord Malpas. Meanwhile, a blind lad named Tersias has appeared on London’s nearly depopulated streets, telling true futures whispered into his ear by the Wretchkin, an invisible half-angel, and the preacher Solomon is gaining flocks of new adherents thanks to the previous episode’s terrifying comet. Moving away from the bombastic prose and awkwardly concealed Christian symbolism that weighed down his earlier outings, the author crafts a richly atmospheric story, played out by a set of tried and true Dickensian character types and laced both with supernatural elements and higher themes. Despite the double miracle he shoehorns in for a sudden, forced happy ending, this is his best yet. Will the next volume feature something like . . . a Spyglass? Stay tuned. (Fantasy. 12-15)
Pub Date: April 1, 2006
ISBN: 0-399-24258-9
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Putnam
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2006
Swift's account of Gulliver's captivity in Lilliput and Brobdingnag is considerably shortened and rephrased here, but Riordan expertly preserves the flavor of the original: upon reaching the temple where he is to stay, the intrepid traveler shamefacedly relieves himself before the tiny multitudes (though the more famous scene where he similarly puts out a palace fire is absent); later, he survives plenty of harrowing adventures, admiringly describing the societies in which he's stranded while taking subtle pokes (and not-so-subtle—``Englishmen are the nastiest race of odious little vermin that Nature ever suffered to crawl upon the surface of the earth,'' says the king of Brobdingnag) at his own, and at fashion and politics in general. Large or small, Gulliver cuts a heroic figure in Ambrus's pervasive, free-wheeling illustrations; other characters have exaggerated features and a comic air that lighten the satire and serves the narrative well. Swift's ax-grinding can be indigestible in large doses; like other abridged classics from this publisher and illustrator, a palatable, well-blended appetizer. (Fiction. 12-14)
Pub Date: Oct. 10, 1992
ISBN: 0-19-279897-9
Page Count: 94
Publisher: Oxford Univ.
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 1992
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Four fifth-graders are recruited by a scheming magician in this hefty bonbon from the author of the Fablehaven tales. At first, Nate, Summer, Trevor and Pigeon think they have it good. Having asked them to help her recover a hidden treasure that (she says) belongs to her, Belinda White, friendly proprietor of a sweets shop that has just opened in their small town, provides some uncommon candies—like Moon Rocks, that give them the ability to jump like grasshoppers, and literally electrifying Shock Bits. When she begins asking them to commit certain burglaries, though, their exhilaration turns to unease, and rightly so; Mrs. White is actually after a draft from the Fountain of Youth that will make her the world’s most powerful magician. And, as it turns out, she isn’t the only magician who’s come to town—not even the only one whose magic is tied to sweets. Filling out the supporting cast with the requisite trio of bullies, plus magical minions of various (and sometimes gross) abilities, Mull trots his twist-laden plot forward to a well set-up climax. Leaving the door open an inch for sequels, he dishes up a crowd-pleaser as delicious—if not so weird—as Charlie and the Chocolate Factory . (Fantasy. 10-13)
Pub Date: Sept. 12, 2007
ISBN: 978-1-59038-783-2
Page Count: 416
Publisher: Shadow Mountain
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2007
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