Another captivating entry in an expansive series.
Waller’s rebellious heroine, Kateiko of the Rin-jouyen, comes of age again but this time in another dimension.
Kateiko is a young antayul—water-caller—who has not yet attuned, or transformed into an animal, for the first time. Despite her leaders’ warnings, Kateiko and her friends travel downriver for fun and encounter another canoe struggling to keep up with the rushing waters. Its riders turn out to be Yotolein, Kateiko’s estranged uncle, and his two half-itheran children, who fled when Eremur soldiers raided their village. Yotolein’s ties to the Rúonbattai, a violent militia determined to claim Eremur for themselves, endanger Kateiko’s tribe, so she leaves home with her cousins. The arduous journey leads her to fire mage mercenary Tiernan and his companions, who are hunting down the Rúonbattai. Together they begin to unveil strange magic that offers sight into parallel worlds and can dangerously affect time. As before, Kateiko is exceptionally brave as she navigates her teenage years in a war-torn world. During this sometimes-exhausting story, she attunes, learns to live among itherans, becomes a mother figure to her young cousins, and experiences first love and loss. Will this Kateiko ever come face to face with the first version? How many more worlds will be explored? There is no ending in sight, but it seems it will be worth the wait. Indigenous peoples are generally brown-skinned and itherans are White. The story includes queer characters.
Another captivating entry in an expansive series. (maps, glossary, timeline) (Fantasy. 15-adult)Pub Date: May 18, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-77041-458-7
Page Count: 380
Publisher: ECW Press
Review Posted Online: Feb. 5, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2021
Part cautionary tale, part juicy love story, this will appeal to action and adventure fans who aren't yet sick of the genre.
A dystopic thriller joins the crowded shelves but doesn't distinguish itself.
Juliette was torn from her home and thrown into an asylum by The Reestablishment, a militaristic regime in control since an environmental catastrophe left society in ruins. Juliette’s journal holds her tortured thoughts in an attempt to repress memories of the horrific act that landed her in a cell. Mysteriously, Juliette’s touch kills. After months of isolation, her captors suddenly give her a cellmate—Adam, a drop-dead gorgeous guy. Adam, it turns out, is immune to her deadly touch. Unfortunately, he’s a soldier under orders from Warner, a power-hungry 19-year-old. But Adam belongs to a resistance movement; he helps Juliette escape to their stronghold, where she finds that she’s not the only one with superhuman abilities. The ending falls flat as the plot devolves into comic-book territory. Fast-paced action scenes convey imminent danger vividly, but there’s little sense of a broader world here. Overreliance on metaphor to express Juliette’s jaw-dropping surprise wears thin: “My mouth is sitting on my kneecaps. My eyebrows are dangling from the ceiling.” For all of her independence and superpowers, Juliette never moves beyond her role as a pawn in someone else’s schemes.
Part cautionary tale, part juicy love story, this will appeal to action and adventure fans who aren't yet sick of the genre. (Science fiction. 12 & up)Pub Date: Nov. 15, 2011
ISBN: 978-0-06-208548-1
Page Count: 352
Publisher: HarperTeen
Review Posted Online: April 5, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2011
SEEN & HEARD
A thoughtful and thrilling story of life, death, and meaning.
Two teens train to be society-sanctioned killers in an otherwise immortal world.
On post-mortal Earth, humans live long (if not particularly passionate) lives without fear of disease, aging, or accidents. Operating independently of the governing AI (called the Thunderhead since it evolved from the cloud), scythes rely on 10 commandments, quotas, and their own moral codes to glean the population. After challenging Hon. Scythe Faraday, 16-year-olds Rowan Damisch and Citra Terranova reluctantly become his apprentices. Subjected to killcraft training, exposed to numerous executions, and discouraged from becoming allies or lovers, the two find themselves engaged in a fatal competition but equally determined to fight corruption and cruelty. The vivid and often violent action unfolds slowly, anchored in complex worldbuilding and propelled by political machinations and existential musings. Scythes’ journal entries accompany Rowan’s and Citra’s dual and dueling narratives, revealing both personal struggles and societal problems. The futuristic post–2042 MidMerican world is both dystopia and utopia, free of fear, unexpected death, and blatant racism—multiracial main characters discuss their diverse ethnic percentages rather than purity—but also lacking creativity, emotion, and purpose. Elegant and elegiac, brooding but imbued with gallows humor, Shusterman’s dark tale thrusts realistic, likable teens into a surreal situation and raises deep philosophic questions.
A thoughtful and thrilling story of life, death, and meaning. (Science fiction. 14 & up)Pub Date: Nov. 29, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-4424-7242-6
Page Count: 448
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: July 25, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2016
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