Hints of a semi-intriguing premise may, with better writing, make this series palatable going forward. (Paranormal...
A clunky story narrated by a mysterious dog with an omniscient viewpoint and graceless grammar.
Rain Cacique’s grandfather ’Bastian has died but not before giving her his gold armband of intertwined snakes. Now Rain is seeing ghosts. Specifically, they are the ghosts of men operating the B-17 bomber that her grandfather piloted and crashed into the sea years ago, killing everyone but him. The ghosts want to go home. No one but Rain can see or hear them, not even her long-suffering friend Charlie. But when the ghosts, with an ethereal ’Bastian piloting, fly their rusted hulk of a plane out from the sea floor (the best part) and radio to a Navy base, the control tower can hear them. Why? Don’t know. Plot inconsistencies plague readers even as the narrative confuses them. Like ’Bastian, whose soul is tethered to the gold snake bracelet and inconveniently dragged around by it, readers are jerked in and out of the story as the narrative moves from very omniscient third person to tail-wagging-dog first person. One casualty of this know-all narrative (besides lack of tension) is that readers are left feeling no connection to the story. Another is the question of why the dog is narrating in the first place.
Hints of a semi-intriguing premise may, with better writing, make this series palatable going forward. (Paranormal adventure. 10-14)Pub Date: Dec. 3, 2013
ISBN: 978-1250029799
Page Count: 240
Publisher: St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: Sept. 24, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2013
Despite the stale fat-to-curvy pattern, compelling world building with a Southern European, pseudo-Christian feel,...
Adventure drags our heroine all over the map of fantasyland while giving her the opportunity to use her smarts.
Elisa—Princess Lucero-Elisa de Riqueza of Orovalle—has been chosen for Service since the day she was born, when a beam of holy light put a Godstone in her navel. She's a devout reader of holy books and is well-versed in the military strategy text Belleza Guerra, but she has been kept in ignorance of world affairs. With no warning, this fat, self-loathing princess is married off to a distant king and is embroiled in political and spiritual intrigue. War is coming, and perhaps only Elisa's Godstone—and knowledge from the Belleza Guerra—can save them. Elisa uses her untried strategic knowledge to always-good effect. With a character so smart that she doesn't have much to learn, body size is stereotypically substituted for character development. Elisa’s "mountainous" body shrivels away when she spends a month on forced march eating rat, and thus she is a better person. Still, it's wonderfully refreshing to see a heroine using her brain to win a war rather than strapping on a sword and charging into battle.
Despite the stale fat-to-curvy pattern, compelling world building with a Southern European, pseudo-Christian feel, reminiscent of Naomi Kritzer's Fires of the Faithful (2002), keeps this entry fresh. (Fantasy. 12-14)Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2011
ISBN: 978-0-06-202648-4
Page Count: 432
Publisher: Greenwillow Books
Review Posted Online: July 19, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2011
If it were a Golden Age comic, this tale of ridiculous science, space dogs and humanoid aliens with flashlights in their hands might not be bad. Alas... Number Four is a fugitive from the planet Lorien, which is sloppily described as both "hundreds of lightyears away" and "billions of miles away." Along with eight other children and their caretakers, Number Four escaped from the Mogadorian invasion of Lorien ten years ago. Now the nine children are scattered on Earth, hiding. Luckily and fairly nonsensically, the planet's Elders cast a charm on them so they could only be killed in numerical order, but children one through three are dead, and Number Four is next. Too bad he's finally gained a friend and a girlfriend and doesn't want to run. At least his newly developing alien powers means there will be screen-ready combat and explosions. Perhaps most idiotic, "author" Pittacus Lore is a character in this fiction—but the first-person narrator is someone else entirely. Maybe this is a natural extension of lightly hidden actual author James Frey's drive to fictionalize his life, but literature it ain't. (Science fiction. 11-13)
Pub Date: Aug. 17, 2010
ISBN: 978-0-06-196955-3
Page Count: 448
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Dec. 22, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2010
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