A sure bet for high-fantasy fans.
In a world where reality is created on looms and woven into complex tapestries, Nels’ life dangles from a single vulnerable thread.
Nels longs to be a knight and can’t understand why his mother’s forbidden him to pursue his dream. Coaxed into disobeying her to attend the summer festival, he beats Avërand’s chief knight in a wrestling match but is publicly snubbed by Princess Tyra, who reneges on her promise to kiss the winner (after all, Nels is a mere peasant). Just hours later, Nels is murdered by a mysterious stranger and becomes a ghost, visible only to Tyra. She may be able to help him back to life, but first he must persuade her to do so and to accompany him on a dangerous quest before time runs out. Mentoring the heroes’ journey is Ickabosh, who practices Fabrication, as he is able to perceive and manipulate the threads from which reality is woven. They’re pursued by Rasmus, Bosh’s former apprentice, bent but powerful and wielding a terrifying gift. Jensen and King’s cosmology draws from weaving and tailoring, as do the tools fabricators manipulate—thread, thimbles, scissors—and what they create with them. While the plot follows a familiar high-fantasy arc that occasionally dips into melodrama, the worldbuilding is dynamic, original and intriguing (if a tad schematic), and the characters, appealing.
A sure bet for high-fantasy fans. (Fantasy. 10-14)Pub Date: Jan. 27, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-545-68572-6
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: Nov. 3, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2014
Despite the stale fat-to-curvy pattern, compelling world building with a Southern European, pseudo-Christian feel,...
Adventure drags our heroine all over the map of fantasyland while giving her the opportunity to use her smarts.
Elisa—Princess Lucero-Elisa de Riqueza of Orovalle—has been chosen for Service since the day she was born, when a beam of holy light put a Godstone in her navel. She's a devout reader of holy books and is well-versed in the military strategy text Belleza Guerra, but she has been kept in ignorance of world affairs. With no warning, this fat, self-loathing princess is married off to a distant king and is embroiled in political and spiritual intrigue. War is coming, and perhaps only Elisa's Godstone—and knowledge from the Belleza Guerra—can save them. Elisa uses her untried strategic knowledge to always-good effect. With a character so smart that she doesn't have much to learn, body size is stereotypically substituted for character development. Elisa’s "mountainous" body shrivels away when she spends a month on forced march eating rat, and thus she is a better person. Still, it's wonderfully refreshing to see a heroine using her brain to win a war rather than strapping on a sword and charging into battle.
Despite the stale fat-to-curvy pattern, compelling world building with a Southern European, pseudo-Christian feel, reminiscent of Naomi Kritzer's Fires of the Faithful (2002), keeps this entry fresh. (Fantasy. 12-14)Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2011
ISBN: 978-0-06-202648-4
Page Count: 432
Publisher: Greenwillow Books
Review Posted Online: July 19, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2011
Well-educated American boys from privileged families have abundant options for college and career. For Chiko, their Burmese counterpart, there are no good choices. There is never enough to eat, and his family lives in constant fear of the military regime that has imprisoned Chiko’s physician father. Soon Chiko is commandeered by the army, trained to hunt down members of the Karenni ethnic minority. Tai, another “recruit,” uses his streetwise survival skills to help them both survive. Meanwhile, Tu Reh, a Karenni youth whose village was torched by the Burmese Army, has been chosen for his first military mission in his people’s resistance movement. How the boys meet and what comes of it is the crux of this multi-voiced novel. While Perkins doesn’t sugarcoat her subject—coming of age in a brutal, fascistic society—this is a gentle story with a lot of heart, suitable for younger readers than the subject matter might suggest. It answers the question, “What is it like to be a child soldier?” clearly, but with hope. (author’s note, historical note) (Fiction. 11-14)
Pub Date: July 1, 2010
ISBN: 978-1-58089-328-2
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Charlesbridge
Review Posted Online: May 31, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2010
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