A riveting opening adventure with vibrant, memorable characters.
A teenager may be one of only a few who can thwart a fiendish, vengeful spellcaster in Branford’s YA fantasy-series starter.
Alton “Shep” Shepherd and his father, Tyson,live on Dragon Island, the one place in Arsala where magic exists. They run a “runesmith” shop—forging magical weapons by imprinting them with runes. The true magic-wielders are elves, who dwell in Dragon Island’s forest and refuse to train humans like the Shepherds. A spellcasting human named Vargas, however, teaches many of his fellow island-dwellers, who together form the black-robed Patrons of Humanity. One day, Vargas, pursuing a personal vendetta, leads the Patrons in an attack on some elves, which ends up devastating the entire island. Shep and his loyal ferret-bat hybrid, Mix, attempt to take refuge in the forest, where they run into a shapeshifting elf and a disillusioned Patron. As the king on mainland Arsala (technically Dragon Island’s ruler) sends help to the remote isle, Shep gets word that he may be part of a prophecy about a group that’s fated to parry Vargas’ malicious assault. Branford entertainingly packs this opening installment with a wide array of subplots as the story runs full tilt. For example, Shep eventually discovers a surprising new ability as he learns about magic and begrudgingly makes new allies. Meanwhile, the cast gradually expands; a Shepherd family friend, the renowned human inventor Simon Hightower, sails to Dragon Island with a crew of mercenaries, including a humanwho may or may not be guilty of murder. There’s plenty of worldbuilding along the way, from multicolored dragons that elves worship as gods to startling revelations involving Arsala and Shep. Throughout, there’s an even blend of lighter moments (including some involving the intelligent but intermittently lazy Mix) and flashes of mostly implied violence. As this book kicks off a series, readers should anticipate dangling plot threads, but there’s a doozy of a cliffhanger, as well.
A riveting opening adventure with vibrant, memorable characters.Pub Date: April 20, 2024
ISBN: 9798323516865
Page Count: 312
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: April 11, 2025
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Wrought with admirable skill—the emptiness and menace underlying this Utopia emerge step by inexorable step: a richly...
In a radical departure from her realistic fiction and comic chronicles of Anastasia, Lowry creates a chilling, tightly controlled future society where all controversy, pain, and choice have been expunged, each childhood year has its privileges and responsibilities, and family members are selected for compatibility.
As Jonas approaches the "Ceremony of Twelve," he wonders what his adult "Assignment" will be. Father, a "Nurturer," cares for "newchildren"; Mother works in the "Department of Justice"; but Jonas's admitted talents suggest no particular calling. In the event, he is named "Receiver," to replace an Elder with a unique function: holding the community's memories—painful, troubling, or prone to lead (like love) to disorder; the Elder ("The Giver") now begins to transfer these memories to Jonas. The process is deeply disturbing; for the first time, Jonas learns about ordinary things like color, the sun, snow, and mountains, as well as love, war, and death: the ceremony known as "release" is revealed to be murder. Horrified, Jonas plots escape to "Elsewhere," a step he believes will return the memories to all the people, but his timing is upset by a decision to release a newchild he has come to love. Ill-equipped, Jonas sets out with the baby on a desperate journey whose enigmatic conclusion resonates with allegory: Jonas may be a Christ figure, but the contrasts here with Christian symbols are also intriguing.
Wrought with admirable skill—the emptiness and menace underlying this Utopia emerge step by inexorable step: a richly provocative novel. (Fiction. 12-16)Pub Date: April 1, 1993
ISBN: 978-0-395-64566-6
Page Count: 208
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 1993
A lackluster and sometimes disturbing mishmash of overused tropes.
The Plague has left a population divided between Elites and Ordinaries—those who have powers and those who don’t; now, an Ordinary teen fights for her life.
Paedyn Gray witnessed the king kill her father five years ago, and she’s been thieving and sleeping rough ever since, all while faking Psychic abilities. When she inadvertently saves the life of Prince Kai, she becomes embroiled in the Purging Trials, a competition to commemorate the sickness that killed most of the kingdom’s Ordinaries. Kai’s duties as the future Enforcer include eradicating any remaining Ordinaries, and these Trials are his chance to prove that he’s internalized his brutal training. But Kai can’t help but find Pae’s blue eyes, silver hair, and unabashed attitude enchanting. She likewise struggles to resist his stormy gray eyes, dark hair, and rakish behavior, even as they’re pitted against each other in the Trials and by the king himself. Scenes and concepts that are strongly reminiscent of the Hunger Games fall flat: They aren’t bolstered by the original’s heart or worldbuilding logic that would have justified a few extreme story elements. Illogical leaps and inconsistent characterizations abound, with lighthearted romantic interludes juxtaposed against genocide, child abuse, and sadism. These elements, which are not sufficiently addressed, combined with the use of ableist language, cannot be erased by any amount of romantic banter. Main characters are cued white; the supporting cast has some brown-skinned characters.
A lackluster and sometimes disturbing mishmash of overused tropes. (map) (Fantasy. 14-18)Pub Date: Nov. 7, 2023
ISBN: 9798987380406
Page Count: 538
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Sept. 9, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2023
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