Aspires to paint-by-numbers quest fantasy but falls short even of that
This trilogy conclusion sends a girl warrior all over fantasyland, a trail of bodies behind her.
Alas, the shoddy worldbuilding and B-movie plotting of the first two books carry over here. When the robed villain Manu de Reich os Deos—"The Right Hand of God," he claims—attacks Alexa and King Damian in the throne room, Alexa can wait no longer. Though she's a member of Damian's personal guard and his affianced bride, she can think of no better plan than disobeying her king's order: she hares off after captured Rylan (ostensibly her second love interest). She travels through a fantasyland packed with flora and fauna from South America and Asia and whose cities have African names. In the nation of Dansii, Alexa is taken captive and becomes the prisoner of King Armando, the blue-eyed maniac who rules his people with a potent combination of mad science and black sorcery. With Alexa's unwilling help, he intends to conquer the world, for he's convinced that her blood holds a powerful magic. Alexa will never survive without the parade of men and women who sacrifice themselves to help her return to Damian. She must fight after unbelievable physical suffering: days of being bled with primitive syringes while deprived of sufficient food and water on a brutally hot desert journey. A deus ex machina conclusion leaves all that sacrifice seeming sadly pointless.
Aspires to paint-by-numbers quest fantasy but falls short even of that . (Fantasy. 11-13)Pub Date: Dec. 29, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-545-64490-7
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: Sept. 20, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2015
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Readers with strong stomachs and a taste for melodramatic narratives bedizened with words like “tenebrous” and “mephitic”...
More luridly gothic deeds and schemes, set near the locales of the author’s Eyeball Collector (2009), Bone Magician (2008) and Black Book of Secrets (2007).
The prosperous town of Oppum Oppidulum, the deep and cold adjacent Lake Beluarum and the Asylum for the Peculiar and Bizarre that sits on an island in said lake all hold horrifying secrets. Young Rex discovers this when his father is confined to the Asylum after suddenly going mad and eating his own hand—to the open glee of Rex’s sinister new stepmother Acantha Grammaticus. Higgins trots Rex himself out to the misty island, where he is befriended by a deaf, young freak-show contortionist, nearly falls under the spell of a hypnotic con artist out to harvest the diamonds scattered thickly on the lake’s bottom and uncovers a number of hideous secrets on the way to a climax that brings just deserts for some and tragic twists of fate for others. Strewing her narrative with dark hints, obscure clues, assorted lunatics and, in particular, both macabre cuisine and a panoply of noxious or tantalizingly evocative odors, the author contrives a highly atmospheric experience.
Readers with strong stomachs and a taste for melodramatic narratives bedizened with words like “tenebrous” and “mephitic” will devour this yarn with relish. So to speak. (Gothic fantasy. 11-13)Pub Date: Aug. 2, 2011
ISBN: 978-0-312-56682-1
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Feiwel & Friends
Review Posted Online: May 20, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2011
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
The other settlers think Ty's parents are crazy for their willingness to do business with "surfs"—the unwanted surfeit...
Ty, the underwater settler from Dark Life (2010), has to rescue his harvest, his parents and a slew of ragged surfs in this breakneck adventure.
The other settlers think Ty's parents are crazy for their willingness to do business with "surfs"—the unwanted surfeit population who sail the oceans in floating townships and are notorious for raids, crime and untrustworthy behavior. Were the cynics right? Drift township kidnaps Ty's parents and steals their crop of seaweed. While Ty searches for his parents, he finds signs that something bigger than the kidnapping of his parents is afoot: An entire township has sunk to the bottom of the ocean, its population left to die. Ty and his erstwhile girlfriend Gemma also learn a lot more about the politics of the settlements than they ever expected. Alas, despite Ty's frequent brushes with moral complexity—perhaps the laws protecting the settlement help make things so bad for the surfs they have few ethical choices; perhaps sometimes he needs to look "at the consequences down the line" for society instead of at his own immediate need—the ultimate resolution is all too simple.Pub Date: Aug. 1, 2011
ISBN: 978-0-545-17843-3
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: June 6, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2011
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