by Nicole Conway ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 26, 2017
A fantasy novel that will have readers wanting more by the time it ends, this is a worthy series opener.
Fifteen-year old Reigh, a human boy raised in an elven world, has never known what it feels like to belong.
In his jungle home of Luntharda, the gray elf kingdom, he works with his adoptive father, Kiran, as a healer. But Reigh also carries a secret: there’s a powerful force within him that he is unable not only to understand, but also to control. Kiran has always insisted that Reigh keep the news of this power to himself, but as Reigh gets older, it becomes harder to do so. Luntharda has known peace for decades thanks to the dragon-riding human hero Jaevid Broadfeather. Forty years ago, Jaevid ended the Gray War and brought amity to Luntharda and human Maldobar, but now enemies threaten the citizens of Maldobar with destruction. A failed effort to get assistance from the elven people and the failed attempt to resurrect Jaevid from his divine sleep have the fate of Maldobar looking grim. Will Reigh rein his power in in time to become the hero his world so desperately needs? Conway offers immersive worldbuilding, creating a familiar-feeling, mostly white high-fantasy setting that’s balanced by Reigh’s colloquial voice. The narrator’s journey of self-discovery feels honest and compelling even in his moments of immaturity and recklessness, and relationships among the characters feel complex and real.
A fantasy novel that will have readers wanting more by the time it ends, this is a worthy series opener. (Fantasy. 10-14)Pub Date: Sept. 26, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-946700-46-9
Page Count: 296
Publisher: Month9Books
Review Posted Online: Aug. 20, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2017
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More In The Series
by Rae Carson ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 1, 2011
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
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by Ransom Riggs ‧ RELEASE DATE: June 7, 2011
A trilogy opener both rich and strange, if heavy at the front end.
Riggs spins a gothic tale of strangely gifted children and the monsters that pursue them from a set of eerie, old trick photographs.
The brutal murder of his grandfather and a glimpse of a man with a mouth full of tentacles prompts months of nightmares and psychotherapy for 15-year-old Jacob, followed by a visit to a remote Welsh island where, his grandfather had always claimed, there lived children who could fly, lift boulders and display like weird abilities. The stories turn out to be true—but Jacob discovers that he has unwittingly exposed the sheltered “peculiar spirits” (of which he turns out to be one) and their werefalcon protector to a murderous hollowgast and its shape-changing servant wight. The interspersed photographs—gathered at flea markets and from collectors—nearly all seem to have been created in the late 19th or early 20th centuries and generally feature stone-faced figures, mostly children, in inscrutable costumes and situations. They are seen floating in the air, posing with a disreputable-looking Santa, covered in bees, dressed in rags and kneeling on a bomb, among other surreal images. Though Jacob’s overdeveloped back story gives the tale a slow start, the pictures add an eldritch element from the early going, and along with creepy bad guys, the author tucks in suspenseful chases and splashes of gore as he goes. He also whirls a major storm, flying bullets and a time loop into a wild climax that leaves Jacob poised for the sequel.
A trilogy opener both rich and strange, if heavy at the front end. (Horror/fantasy. 12-14)Pub Date: June 7, 2011
ISBN: 978-1-59474-476-1
Page Count: 234
Publisher: Quirk Books
Review Posted Online: March 30, 2014
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More In The Series
by Ransom Riggs ; illustrated by Andrew Davidson
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by Ransom Riggs ; illustrated by Jim Tierney
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