Drudgery, not fun.
The Scrolls of the Ancients is listed as the final installment of The Chronicles of Blood and Stone trilogy, although Del Ray announces signing Newcomb for three more volumes.
The trilogy has not been a clean sweep with readers. Many rate its endless first 1,234 acres of exposition right up there with mowing the lawn for two weeks. And now we have a further 550 acres adding their swells of excitement. Newcomb chronicles the history of “endowed blood” in Eutracia, explaining how the prophesied two Chosen Ones, Prince Tristan and twin sister Shailiha, face the country’s devastation. “Endowed blood” means that magic is passed on only in the pure azure blood of the Chosen Ones. Considering that Tristan was forced by the vile Coven of Sorceresses to murder both his father and mother, thus losing his kingdom, it’s no surprise when his own son, Nicholas, becomes Tristan’s worst enemy. It was the disguised sorceress Natasha who lusted to mingle her blood with the Chosen Ones. At first, Tristan wanted only to slog through his years on the throne, then retire and lead the Directorate of Wizards. But in the fall of Eutracia, the Directorate of Wizards is wiped out, except for Tristan’s talkative tutors, the elderly wizard Wigg and the Wizard Faegan, who returns from exile. Can order be restored to Eutracia? Well, not when Nicholas leads an army of wizards and posts a reward for the capture of Tristan. It is Nicholas who has depleted the magic luster of Eutracia’s Paragon Stone. Only the recovery of the Scrolls of the Ancients, an almost unreadable magic tome, can restore the Stone to its full power. But first there arises Krassus, the demonslaver, whose fleet takes Eutracians in chains to the evil Citadel, a place crawling with living nightmares. There also arises the fierce Tyranny, a female privateer, to help Tristan battle the demonslavers. Despite horrors, all ends serenely.
Drudgery, not fun.Pub Date: June 1, 2004
ISBN: 0-345-44896-0
Page Count: 550
Publisher: Del Rey/Ballantine
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2004
A breezy and fun contemporary fantasy.
A tightly wound caseworker is pushed out of his comfort zone when he’s sent to observe a remote orphanage for magical children.
Linus Baker loves rules, which makes him perfectly suited for his job as a midlevel bureaucrat working for the Department in Charge of Magical Youth, where he investigates orphanages for children who can do things like make objects float, who have tails or feathers, and even those who are young witches. Linus clings to the notion that his job is about saving children from cruel or dangerous homes, but really he’s a cog in a government machine that treats magical children as second-class citizens. When Extremely Upper Management sends for Linus, he learns that his next assignment is a mission to an island orphanage for especially dangerous kids. He is to stay on the island for a month and write reports for Extremely Upper Management, which warns him to be especially meticulous in his observations. When he reaches the island, he meets extraordinary kids like Talia the gnome, Theodore the wyvern, and Chauncey, an amorphous blob whose parentage is unknown. The proprietor of the orphanage is a strange but charming man named Arthur, who makes it clear to Linus that he will do anything in his power to give his charges a loving home on the island. As Linus spends more time with Arthur and the kids, he starts to question a world that would shun them for being different, and he even develops romantic feelings for Arthur. Lambda Literary Award–winning author Klune (The Art of Breathing, 2019, etc.) has a knack for creating endearing characters, and readers will grow to love Arthur and the orphans alongside Linus. Linus himself is a lovable protagonist despite his prickliness, and Klune aptly handles his evolving feelings and morals. The prose is a touch wooden in places, but fans of quirky fantasy will eat it up.
A breezy and fun contemporary fantasy.Pub Date: March 17, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-250-21728-8
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Tor
Review Posted Online: Nov. 10, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2019
PERSPECTIVES
A charming and persuasive entry that will leave readers impatiently awaiting the concluding volume.
Book 2 of Hearne's latest fantasy trilogy, The Seven Kennings (A Plague of Giants, 2017), set in a multiracial world thrust into turmoil by an invasion of peculiar giants.
In this world, most races have their own particular magical endowment, or “kenning,” though there are downsides to trying to gain the magic (an excellent chance of being killed instead) and using it (rapid aging and death). Most recently discovered is the sixth kenning, whose beneficiaries can talk to and command animals. The story canters along, although with multiple first-person narrators, it's confusing at times. Some characters are familiar, others are new, most of them with their own problems to solve, all somehow caught up in the grand design. To escape her overbearing father and the unreasoning violence his kind represents, fire-giant Olet Kanek leads her followers into the far north, hoping to found a new city where the races and kennings can peacefully coexist. Joining Olet are young Abhinava Khose, discoverer of the sixth kenning, and, later, Koesha Gansu (kenning: air), captain of an all-female crew shipwrecked by deep-sea monsters. Elsewhere, Hanima, who commands hive insects, struggles to free her city from the iron grip of wealthy, callous merchant monarchists. Other threads focus on the Bone Giants, relentless invaders seeking the still-unknown seventh kenning, whose confidence that this can defeat the other six is deeply disturbing. Under Hearne's light touch, these elements mesh perfectly, presenting an inventive, eye-filling panorama; satisfying (and, where appropriate, well-resolved) plotlines; and tensions between the races and their kennings to supply much of the drama.
A charming and persuasive entry that will leave readers impatiently awaiting the concluding volume.Pub Date: Feb. 4, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-345-54857-3
Page Count: 592
Publisher: Del Rey/Ballantine
Review Posted Online: Nov. 24, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2019
BOOK REVIEW
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