Aussie-flavored excitement with ancient Greek tidbits, underdeveloped in places.
Immortality, a sunken city, a violent Minotaur and a cult join in contemporary Australia for adventure that’s haphazard but fast-paced.
Sadie longs to leave Perth’s stultifying beach days for “Oxford. Melbourne. Anywhere.” Excitement comes when she witnesses an attack on an old man. She chases off the attackers, and before dying in the hospital, the stranger bequeaths her his house—then promptly returns in a teenage body. Jake’s an 8,000-year-old immortal envoy from the Gods. The attackers, who escaped into the sea, are Drowners with “soft-boiled eyes” and “bile-coloured lips,” doomed to rot in the ocean depths. Jake guards a power-wielding demon in a box, which the Drowners want for their ruler, who’s underwater in Atlantis; but if anyone uses the demon’s power, “the Gods will set the whole planet ablaze.” There’s gore and nonstop action as Sadie and Jake dash around town coping with Drowners, a murderer, a human-devouring Minotaur and evangelists craving blood sacrifice who think Jake’s their savior. Despite deft handling of Sadie’s grief over her parents’ deaths years ago, Bartlett neglects Jake’s crucial emotional back story: Supposedly, fear and shame prevented Jake from solving the demon/Gods crisis ages ago, but the text gives barely a nod to Jake’s emotions, so that explanation seems empty. Narrative perspective wanders; careless slams (“lezzo”; the Drowners “look…Japanese”) rankle.
Aussie-flavored excitement with ancient Greek tidbits, underdeveloped in places. (Fantasy. 12-15)Pub Date: Feb. 11, 2014
ISBN: 978-1-921922-74-9
Page Count: 308
Publisher: Text
Review Posted Online: Nov. 26, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2013
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
This is no didactic near-future warning of present evils, but a cinematic adventure featuring endearing, compelling heroes
A gripping thriller in dystopic future Los Angeles.
Fifteen-year-olds June and Day live completely different lives in the glorious Republic. June is rich and brilliant, the only candidate ever to get a perfect score in the Trials, and is destined for a glowing career in the military. She looks forward to the day when she can join up and fight the Republic’s treacherous enemies east of the Dakotas. Day, on the other hand, is an anonymous street rat, a slum child who failed his own Trial. He's also the Republic's most wanted criminal, prone to stealing from the rich and giving to the poor. When tragedies strike both their families, the two brilliant teens are thrown into direct opposition. In alternating first-person narratives, Day and June experience coming-of-age adventures in the midst of spying, theft and daredevil combat. Their voices are distinct and richly drawn, from Day’s self-deprecating affection for others to June's Holmesian attention to detail. All the flavor of a post-apocalyptic setting—plagues, class warfare, maniacal soldiers—escalates to greater complexity while leaving space for further worldbuilding in the sequel.
This is no didactic near-future warning of present evils, but a cinematic adventure featuring endearing, compelling heroes . (Science fiction. 12-14)Pub Date: Nov. 29, 2011
ISBN: 978-0-399-25675-2
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Putnam
Review Posted Online: April 8, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2011
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