Beaucoup magic and entertainment with just the right amount of educational value.
This third installment of a middle-grade fantasy series finds a girl and a city threatened by a wizard wielding a powerful and potentially deadly weapon.
Alex is a young girl who was mysteriously transported to a world where Latin and mathematics are combined to generate magic. With her mentor Archimedes in prison, she’s hiding in the wilderness outside the city, especially because fiendish Master Wizards Diades and Demetrius are looking for her. Though Alex is skilled at magic, Archimedes believes she’s the “missing variable,” with the ability to solve this world’s problems. Alex eventually meets winged Daedalus, who takes her to the Iron Mountains, where former advisers Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle have isolated themselves following accusations of poisoning the king. Unfortunately, Alex’s calculator is in the hands of Diades, and its mathematical capability makes the device inherently dangerous. Indeed, the wizard uses it to create a disaster that leaves the city in ruins and many of the inhabitants dead. Survivors form a party for an arduous trek through the woods to the Iron Mountains. There, they hope to reunite with Alex and make their way to the Master Wizards’ black castle to retrieve the device. Alex, meanwhile, under the assumption that all of her pals in the city have perished, concocts a similar plan. As in the previous novels, West’s (Circulus de Potentia, 2016, etc.) blending of Latin and math serves the story well, enhancing rather than sidelining the main plot. Diades, for example, torments his captive, Pythagoras, by using the device to calculate the number of people who’ve died in the tragedy. Latin phrases are most often conveniently translated (for example, by characters who’ve uttered them) and are sometimes profound on their own: “dum spiro, spero. While I breathe, I hope.” West adds his own effervescent descriptions as well (“the monster brought the blackness like an oily cloud that spread over everything hungrily”). Supporting characters stand out, including deaf Maya, a worthy counterpart to her blind brother, Mada, while others face hazards such as wolves and a blizzard. There’s no resolution or climax in sight, but the ending should definitely have readers keeping eyes out for the fourth volume.
Beaucoup magic and entertainment with just the right amount of educational value.Pub Date: Aug. 27, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-5368-6202-7
Page Count: 336
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: Oct. 25, 2016
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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 magical story with a classic Disney feel exploring love, friendship, and leading amid hardship.
Shortly before the new queen’s coronation, a monster wreaks havoc, forcing a young fairy princess to intervene at her own risk.
In Pixie Hollow, the Never Fairies of Spring, Summer, and Autumn work to create seasons for the humans on the Mainland, while the fairies of Winter remain apart in the Winter Woods. Clarion, a governing-talent fairy who’s soon to take over as queen of Pixie Hollow, often looks wonderingly at the Winter Woods. But crossing the border is against the rules set forth by her mentor, Queen Elvina. When a monster from Winter breaks free and enters Spring, Clarion bristles at Elvina’s dismissal. Determined to be involved, she secretly travels to Winter, meets with Milori, the Warden of the Winter Woods, and learns that the land is nothing like what she’s heard, making her wonder what else the queen has been untruthful about. Together Milori and Clarion work to discover the secrets of Pixie Hollow, which may save them—or lead to death. Set in a magical place of flowers and pixie dust, this story considers the control we have over the roles we’re assigned. Clarion is a beautifully complex character—strong yet insecure, lovable due to her willingness to prioritize relationships over rules. Themes of fear, forbidden love, and good vs. evil are present in this fast-paced, engaging tale. Main characters are cued white.
A magical story with a classic Disney feel exploring love, friendship, and leading amid hardship. (Fantasy. 12-18)Pub Date: Feb. 4, 2025
ISBN: 9781368098458
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Disney Press
Review Posted Online: Oct. 26, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2024
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