Despite taking an entire book to get to the Collegium, Sauvain’s ensemble of unique characters enduring precarious...
In Sauvain’s epic fantasy, an aging sorcerer recruits three teenagers to study at the Collegium Sorcerorum; on their way, they’ll face thrilling adventures, romantic encounters and life lessons.
Set in the mysterious Dark Ages, the novel begins with an eccentric, mule-riding vagabond successfully luring 14-year-old Thaddeus from his parents’ home in Beewicke. The nearly 1,000-year-old sorcerer, Master Silvestrus (reminiscent of Dumbledore), recruits Thaddeus of Beewicke, Anders of Brightfield and Rolland of Fountaindale—a prominent thief—as his three apprentices. They are to travel to the Collegium, learn the art of sorcery and play their part in fulfilling an age-old prophecy. Sauvain’s detail-rich paragraphs and astute sense of character development are comparable to the Harry Potter series. Here, however, sorcery is more experimental and requires one to believe and have been intimate with a beloved. While Thaddeus is the clear-cut protagonist, the characters of Rolland, Anders and Asullus are arguably more compelling and memorable. Asullus, the talking mule, is hilarious and loyal to a fault. Anders, having studied under numerous scholars, is the intelligent one. Rolland, an orphan who grew up on the streets and steals for survival, quickly develops an entertaining love/hate relationship with Asullus. Together, Master Silvestrus and company tackle adventures featuring robbers, ogres, deceptive butterflies, spirits, fairies, elves, talking trees, demons, a peculiar dog named Bellis, the cursed Cin army of cowards and more. Although splendid characterizations, engaging plot twists and humorous dialogues are the pillars of Sauvain’s narrative, a number of characters seem rushed and far too temporary; for example, Ethne enters the novel early as Thaddeus’ love interest, but there’s no sign of her in the remaining 548 pages. Sean Bodley’s illustrations and maps add depth to the setting, the extensive glossary allows readers to understand Lingua Imperatoria and the section on “Dramatis Personae” is instrumental in explaining who each character is and the role he plays.
Despite taking an entire book to get to the Collegium, Sauvain’s ensemble of unique characters enduring precarious situations delivers great fun and anticipation for the ensuing books in the saga.Pub Date: July 19, 2011
ISBN: 978-0615503295
Page Count: 548
Publisher: Louis Sauvain
Review Posted Online: Dec. 5, 2011
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
King handles his first novel with considerable accomplishment and very little hokum—it's only too easy to believe that these...
Figuratively and literally shattering moments of hoRRRRRipilication in Chamberlain, Maine where stones fly from the sky rather than from the hands of the villagers (as they did in "The Lottery," although the latter are equal to other forms of persecution).
All beginning when Carrie White discovers a gift with telekinetic powers (later established as a genetic fact), after she menstruates in full ignorance of the process and thinks she is bleeding to death while the other monsters in the high school locker room bait and bully her mercilessly. Carrie is the only child of a fundamentalist freak mother who has brought her up with a concept of sin which no blood of the Lamb can wash clean. In addition to a sympathetic principal and gym teacher, there's one girl who wishes to atone and turns her date for the spring ball over to Carrie who for the first time is happy, beautiful and acknowledged as such. But there will be hell to pay for this success—not only her mother but two youngsters who douse her in buckets of fresh-killed pig blood so that Carrie once again uses her "wild talent," flexes her mind and a complete catastrophe (explosion and an uncontrolled fire) virtually destroys the town.
King handles his first novel with considerable accomplishment and very little hokum—it's only too easy to believe that these youngsters who once ate peanut butter now scrawl "Carrie White eats shit." But as they still say around here, "Sit a spell and collect yourself."Pub Date: April 8, 1974
ISBN: 0385086954
Page Count: 216
Publisher: Doubleday
Review Posted Online: Sept. 26, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 1974
PERSPECTIVES
SEEN & HEARD
BOOK TO SCREEN
A first novel, this is also a first person account of Scout's (Jean Louise) recall of the years that led to the ending of a mystery, the breaking of her brother Jem's elbow, the death of her father's enemy — and the close of childhood years. A widower, Atticus raises his children with legal dispassion and paternal intelligence, and is ably abetted by Calpurnia, the colored cook, while the Alabama town of Maycomb, in the 1930's, remains aloof to their divergence from its tribal patterns. Scout and Jem, with their summer-time companion, Dill, find their paths free from interference — but not from dangers; their curiosity about the imprisoned Boo, whose miserable past is incorporated in their play, results in a tentative friendliness; their fears of Atticus' lack of distinction is dissipated when he shoots a mad dog; his defense of a Negro accused of raping a white girl, Mayella Ewell, is followed with avid interest and turns the rabble whites against him. Scout is the means of averting an attack on Atticus but when he loses the case it is Boo who saves Jem and Scout by killing Mayella's father when he attempts to murder them. The shadows of a beginning for black-white understanding, the persistent fight that Scout carries on against school, Jem's emergence into adulthood, Calpurnia's quiet power, and all the incidents touching on the children's "growing outward" have an attractive starchiness that keeps this southern picture pert and provocative. There is much advance interest in this book; it has been selected by the Literary Guild and Reader's Digest; it should win many friends.
Pub Date: July 11, 1960
ISBN: 0060935464
Page Count: 323
Publisher: Lippincott
Review Posted Online: Oct. 7, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 1960
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
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