For all its cool premise, this fantasy’s full of tropes but no surprises.
Trapped inside a mixed-reality game, two siblings race the clock to defeat a villainous AI dragon and rescue their cousin.
Ian Rivera, a 12-year-old misunderstood gamer, loves the Fields of Fantasy role-playing game more than anyone. Now he gets to enter the world through Dragon Ops, a mixed-reality theme park on a small island. When the game’s ultimate, undefeatable opponent seizes control of the game, the stakes rise to the highest possible level: die in the game, die in real life. In order to beat that boss—Atreus, a red dragon with fire power—Ian’s party needs to collect three Elemental Stones from the other three dragons that maintain balance in the world: earth, water, and (no, not air) ice. Mancusi packs the story with references to memes, video games, and Disney in the vein of Ready Player One (the movie is actively referenced in the text). The surname Rivera is the only indicator of cultural identity for Ian and his family. They are otherwise presumed white. Ikumi, a girl whose avatar has “eyes like an anime character's," is Japanese, as is one of the game’s creators. Their representation comes in the form of sprinkled-in lines about bowing and “gaijin,” which smacks more of exoticization than authenticity, especially as they are seen through Ian’s perspective.
For all its cool premise, this fantasy’s full of tropes but no surprises. (Science fiction/fantasy. 8-12)Pub Date: May 12, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-368-04090-7
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Disney-Hyperion/LBYR
Review Posted Online: Feb. 25, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2020
Hugely entertaining, timely, and triumphant.
Robot Roz undertakes an unusual ocean journey to save her adopted island home in this third series entry.
When a poison tide flowing across the ocean threatens their island, Roz works with the resident creatures to ensure that they will have clean water, but the destruction of vegetation and crowding of habitats jeopardize everyone’s survival. Brown’s tale of environmental depredation and turmoil is by turns poignant, graceful, endearing, and inspiring, with his (mostly) gentle robot protagonist at its heart. Though Roz is different from the creatures she lives with or encounters—including her son, Brightbill the goose, and his new mate, Glimmerwing—she makes connections through her versatile communication abilities and her desire to understand and help others. When Roz accidentally discovers that the replacement body given to her by Dr. Molovo is waterproof, she sets out to seek help and discovers the human-engineered source of the toxic tide. Brown’s rich descriptions of undersea landscapes, entertaining conversations between Roz and wild creatures, and concise yet powerful explanations of the effect of the poison tide on the ecology of the island are superb. Simple, spare illustrations offer just enough glimpses of Roz and her surroundings to spark the imagination. The climactic confrontation pits oceangoing mammals, seabirds, fish, and even zooplankton against hardware and technology in a nicely choreographed battle. But it is Roz’s heroism and peacemaking that save the day.
Hugely entertaining, timely, and triumphant. (author’s note) (Fiction. 8-12)Pub Date: Sept. 26, 2023
ISBN: 9780316669412
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: Aug. 26, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2023
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Is this the end? Well, no…the series will stagger on through at least one more scheduled sequel.
Sure signs that the creative wells are running dry at last, the Captain’s ninth, overstuffed outing both recycles a villain (see Book 4) and offers trendy anti-bullying wish fulfillment.
Not that there aren’t pranks and envelope-pushing quips aplenty. To start, in an alternate ending to the previous episode, Principal Krupp ends up in prison (“…a lot like being a student at Jerome Horwitz Elementary School, except that the prison had better funding”). There, he witnesses fellow inmate Tippy Tinkletrousers (aka Professor Poopypants) escape in a giant Robo-Suit (later reduced to time-traveling trousers). The villain sets off after George and Harold, who are in juvie (“not much different from our old school…except that they have library books here.”). Cut to five years previous, in a prequel to the whole series. George and Harold link up in kindergarten to reduce a quartet of vicious bullies to giggling insanity with a relentless series of pranks involving shaving cream, spiders, effeminate spoof text messages and friendship bracelets. Pilkey tucks both topical jokes and bathroom humor into the cartoon art, and ups the narrative’s lexical ante with terms like “pharmaceuticals” and “theatrical flair.” Unfortunately, the bullies’ sad fates force Krupp to resign, so he’s not around to save the Earth from being destroyed later on by Talking Toilets and other invaders…
Is this the end? Well, no…the series will stagger on through at least one more scheduled sequel. (Fantasy. 10-12)Pub Date: Aug. 28, 2012
ISBN: 978-0-545-17534-0
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: June 19, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2012
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