Long on inventive details, if short on internal logic, this sweeping tale, set largely in an alternate world whose inhabitants ride oversized pigs and birds rather than horses, colorfully opens a (probable) new series from the author of Witch Trade (2001) and its sequels. Tim and his little dog Josh fall through a “starway” into the land of Tallis, where they join efforts to stymie an evil Great Duke’s takeover plot. Much traveling atop pigs and battle cockerels ensues, punctuated by encounters with a bad warlock, benign enchantresses called “chanters,” little people, gypsy-like Gurneys, clouds of deadly spores, immense flying trees, and more, until events wind up to a climactic duel. Molloy shoehorns in superfluous subplots, leaves such mysteries as how plants in Tallis could bear fruits but no flowers unexplained, and leans heavily on arbitrary magic and other contrivances to keep the plot moving. But move it does, as he takes his young adventurer through plenty of dangerous situations, gives him loyal companions of both sexes, saves some revelations for the end, and finally brings him safely home. For some readers, that may be enough. (Fiction. 11-13)
Pub Date: April 1, 2004
ISBN: 0-439-57740-3
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Chicken House/Scholastic
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2004
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
In an opener that’s stronger on character development than internal logic, Sutherland introduces a handful of teenagers with supernatural abilities who are suddenly cast seven decades into a future nearly devoid of humanity but well populated with robot predators and gene-spliced chimeras. For no evident reason beyond boosting the page count, all but one of the scattered protagonists have to travel thousands of miles, surviving various attacks in often-contrived ways in order to meet one another in New York’s Central Park. There, they learn that they are each members of a particular ancient pantheon, reborn to fight one another in an upcoming struggle for supremacy. Though dropping hints of this from the series title on, the author keeps both characters and readers in the dark too long. She is also inconsistent with details and invests scenario and cast alike with a glossy, designed feel reminiscent of classier video games. That last may actually draw some readers, but so far Sutherland only promises the level of imagination and humor that Rick Riordan delivers in his similarly premised Lightning Thief (2005) and Sea of Monsters (April 2006). (Fantasy. 11-13)
Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2006
ISBN: 0-06-075024-3
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Eos/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2006
In this fantasy-like space-travel trilogy opener, a grieving boy finds his strength in a distant land. Mute since he lost his arm to cancer a year before, Jamie lives with his mother in a Harlem slum. An inheritance from a forgotten relative brings them to a new home on an Irish island, where Jamie hopes to start fresh. Along with new friend Ramsay, Jamie discovers a strange device hidden in an old lighthouse: the Salmon of Knowledge, which carries the boys to the planet Altair. Here, Jamie is not a mute, one-armed child but a hero, the Ui Neill, a descendent of those who saved this world in the distant past. Ramsay and Jamie need to save a beautiful alien girl from the invaders who threaten her city, but they’re only children against numerous warriors. And once Jamie has become the hero, why should he return to Earth, where he’s “a voiceless cripple?” Despite weak dialogue and flat characters, an entertaining adventure. (Science fiction. 11-13)
Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2006
ISBN: 0-8109-5480-X
Page Count: 372
Publisher: Amulet/Abrams
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2006
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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