Readers who prefer their fantasy stocked with cozily familiar situations and character types will swoon over this romantic tale of a willowy, chestnut-haired princess and her Elven lover. Along with her other notable attributes, Gabrielle DesChênes is a gifted Healer, dedicated enough to her profession to remain unmarried at 27. But into passionately requited love she falls, with elegant, point-eared Féolan, who rides into the castle one day out of legend to warn that brutish invaders are massing just over the mountains. Amid preparations for war, the two must part—Gabrielle particularly troubled by the fact that Féolan’s expected lifespan is ten times her own. Bedight with formal-toned dialogue—“The wound is mending cleanly, and he did awaken earlier and speak to me”— bloody battles, medical miracles and numerous tearful partings and reunions (but no sex), this tale will delight tea-sippers of all ages. A sequel is announced, though as by the end, the invaders are routed and the two lovers betrothed, it’s hard to see where the story could go. (Fantasy. 11-13)
Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2005
ISBN: 1-55143-336-2
Page Count: 208
Publisher: Orca
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2005
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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
Paulsen recalls personal experiences that he incorporated into Hatchet (1987) and its three sequels, from savage attacks by moose and mosquitoes to watching helplessly as a heart-attack victim dies. As usual, his real adventures are every bit as vivid and hair-raising as those in his fiction, and he relates them with relish—discoursing on “The Fine Art of Wilderness Nutrition,” for instance: “Something that you would never consider eating, something completely repulsive and ugly and disgusting, something so gross it would make you vomit just looking at it, becomes absolutely delicious if you’re starving.” Specific examples follow, to prove that he knows whereof he writes. The author adds incidents from his Iditarod races, describes how he made, then learned to hunt with, bow and arrow, then closes with methods of cooking outdoors sans pots or pans. It’s a patchwork, but an entertaining one, and as likely to win him new fans as to answer questions from his old ones. (Autobiography. 10-13)
Pub Date: Feb. 1, 2001
ISBN: 0-385-32650-5
Page Count: 150
Publisher: Delacorte
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2000
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