In a severe case of middle-volume-itis, plot lines proliferate, the pace slows and the tale is left in mid-flight in this follow-up to the better-than-it-looked Leven Thumps and the Gateway to Foo (2005). Here, young Leven and his companions are repeatedly separated and reunited as they struggle to make their way across the dream-driven realm of Foo to restore Geth, its rightful ruler (but currently imprisoned in a much-used toothpick), to his former glory. Back in reality, coagulated globs of the exploded arch-villain Sabine gain human allies to rebuild the gateway that will leave both worlds vulnerable to conquest. As before, Skye displays a dab hand at crafting both baroque metaphors and uniquely grotesque menaces; he also blends in clever details (from Leven chewing on a “Pigment-o” to disguise his coloration, for instance, to a humble garbage collector with children named Darcy and Rochester), though more thinly than in the previous episode. Despite extensive closing notes, readers unfamiliar with that first outing are likely to flounder, but Skye’s world-building is inventive enough to carry the tale at least a little farther. Frequent full-page illustrations not seen. (Fantasy. 11-13)
Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2006
ISBN: 1-59038-490-3
Page Count: 432
Publisher: Shadow Mountain
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2006
In a prequel to The Ice Bear (1986), Siri’s people live in the frozen Starkland settlement, residing peacefully with the primitive Furfolk, who communicate by whuffles and grunts. Siri’s Uncle Thorvald plans to convince the king to rescind their people’s banishment to that remote arctic isle with the gift of an ice bear and its cubs. To do this he needs the help of his friend, a Furfolk man, who can handle the bear on the long sea journey; Siri accompanies them disguised as one of the Furfolk man’s children. But when the king insists that the Furfolk man stay with the bear, Thorvald is forced to betray his friend for the sake of his people, while Siri chooses to betray Thorvald for her new Furfolk friends. Her allegiances have shifted during the course of the journey, and in the end it is left unclear whether her people will try to destroy the Furfolk, and what Siri can do to stop them. This complex, atmospheric morality tale offers no easy answers, and takes place in a world that is alien and exotic. (Fiction. 10-12)
Pub Date: Aug. 26, 1999
ISBN: 0-688-16602-4
Page Count: 152
Publisher: Greenwillow Books
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 1999
Using multiple narrators and expertly concocted cliffhangers, Pullman (The Subtle Knife, 1997, etc.) crafts a thrilling page-turner less violent than his Sally Lockhart adventures but no less breathlessly paced. Brought to these shores 16 years after it was first published in Britain, this gothic farce features young orphans, evil schemers, a gloomy Swiss castle, a long-lost heir, stalwart lads, capable women, a con man on the lam, hilariously bumbling police officers, and Zamiel: the Prince of the Mountains, the Demon Huntsman, “swathed in impenetrable darkness, with eyes of raging fire.” Having agreed to supply the demon with human prey in exchange for riches, the amoral upstart Count Karlstein and his slimy secretary Snivelwurst plan to lock bereaved young Lucy and Charlotte, believed to be the last Karlsteins in the direct line, in a hunting lodge on All Souls’ Eve. Fortunately, 14-year-old servant Hildi and chunky but superbly competent English tutor Augusta Davenport get wind of the plot and engineer a clever reversal, but not before a sequence of mishaps, desperate searches, captures, and escapes, complicated by a tangle of subplots and capped by a gloriously frightening glimpse of Zamiel himself, at whose hands Count Karlstein meets a well-deserved doom. In the ensuing hubbub, doughty Miss Davenport is reunited with her lost love Antonio Rolipolio, an escape artist whose feckless assistant Max turns out to be none other than Castle Karlstein’s real heir, kidnapped as a baby and thought lost. It’s whirlwind plotting, manipulated into a pulsing tale of darkened hearts, treachery, and at long last, redemption. (Fiction. 11-13)
Pub Date: July 1, 1998
ISBN: 0-679-89255-9
Page Count: 256
Publisher: Knopf
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 1998
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