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
Thumb-sized mage/warrior Magpie Windwitch’s quest to find and wake the creation-weaving Djinn moves one step closer to completion but also suffers a major reverse in this headlong sequel to Dreamdark: Blackbringer (formerly Fairies of Dreamdark: Blackbringer, 2007). On the trail of the Djinn Azazel, Magpie and her allies wing into the fairy city of Nazneen too late to prevent young Whisper, last of the Silksinger clan, and the sleeping Djinn she guards from falling into the clutches of the deliciously frightening general Ethiag and Ethiag’s mysterious Master. Replete with desperate fights and flights, the plot races along to a rousing climax—and then a stunning betrayal that both renders the fairies’ victory a qualified one at best and leaves the ending open for a direct segue into the next episode. Equally adept at folding in both low humor and elevated imagery and language, Taylor expertly weaves multiple story lines into another ripping yarn, once again taking readers into an uncommonly well-articulated world where the magic follows credible rules and the fairies are anything but the sugarplum sort. (Fantasy. 11-13)
Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2009
ISBN: 978-0-399-24631-9
Page Count: 464
Publisher: Putnam
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2009
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
This familiar-feeling fantasy devotes much energy to culture creation and culture clash but disquietingly favors one over others. Taoshira, nicknamed Tashi, is the Fourth Crown Princess of the Blue Crescent Islands. Her existence is lonely and formal, as she recites ritual prayer after ritual prayer and helps rule. Prince Ramil, in the mainland nation of Gerfal, rebels against his father’s plan that he wed Taoshira in a military alliance. Tashi and Ram meet, hate, spar and predictably fall in love as they survive kidnapping by a warlord, imprisonment, bandit attacks and separation. Pivotal military and romantic events seem oddly brief and anticlimactic. The Blue Crescents resemble a stylized Japan except for their inhabitants’ repeatedly mentioned—almost fetishized—golden hair; Tashi, disturbingly, is an Orientalized blond who can only flourish in Ram’s British/European-type country. Ram is interracial, his (dead) mother from a desert-dwelling, “dark-skinned people known as the Horse Followers,” but his culture is the normative white one that the text and Tashi prefer. For large collections or critical race/gender study. (Fantasy. 11-13)
Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2009
ISBN: 978-0-7614-5582-0
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Marshall Cavendish
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2009
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