A droll addition to the magical school genre, worthy of a seat toward the front of the (Harry) Potter-wagon.
Will assaults from within and without close a renowned school for minions—leaving the Evil Overlords of the world to draw from rival schools?
Not if Runt Higgins, newest addition to the exclusive Junior Henchman Training program, has anything to say about it. The deck looks stacked, though. A devastating video of panicked Critchlore grads fleeing a group of (apparent!) Girl Explorers has gone viral, and an ongoing string of near disasters prevents recovery. Not only that, a massive explosion in the local graveyard has robbed the school of its chief source of undead new students. Even worse, iron-willed headmaster Dr. Derek Critchlore has suddenly taken to distractedly watching TV soaps and is in danger of being replaced. Kind, thoughtful and so naïve that he’s continually being victimized by pranksters, Runt really isn’t henchman material—but significant clues and loose ends hint that he’ll be achieving a higher station in planned sequels. Moreover, Grau supplies him with loyal friends from half-ogre foster brother Boris to bolt-necked Frank Twenty-five, whose head tends to fly off in a shower of gore when he’s upset. Frequent side jokes and Sutphin’s accomplished caricatures of students, faculty and staff, both human and non-, add comical flourishes.
A droll addition to the magical school genre, worthy of a seat toward the front of the (Harry) Potter-wagon. (pictorial cast list) (Fantasy. 11-13)Pub Date: April 21, 2015
ISBN: 978-1-4197-1370-5
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Amulet/Abrams
Review Posted Online: Dec. 5, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2014
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Like its bestselling progenitors, a nonstop spinoff afroth with high tech, spectacular magic, and silly business.
With their big brother Artemis off to Mars, 11-year-old twins Myles and Beckett are swept up in a brangle with murderous humans and even more dangerous magical creatures.
Unsurprisingly, the fraternal Irish twins ultimately prove equal to the challenge—albeit with help from, Colfer as omniscient narrator admits early on, a “hugely improbable finale.” Following the coincidental arrival on their island estate of two denizens of the subterranean fairy realm in the persons of a tiny but fearsome troll and a “hybrid” pixie-elf, or “pixel,” police trainee, the youngest Fowls immediately find themselves in the sights of both Lord Teddy Bleedham-Drye, a ruthless aristocrat out to bag said troll for its immorality-conferring venom, and Sister Jeronima Gonzalez-Ramos de Zárate, black-ops “nunterrogation” and knife specialist for ACRONYM, an intergovernmental fairy-monitoring organization. Amid the ensuing whirl of captures, escapes, trickery, treachery, and gunfire (none of which proves fatal…or at least not permanently), the twins leverage their complementary differences to foil and exasperate both foes: Myles being an Artemis mini-me who has dressed in black suits since infancy and loves coming up with and then “Fowlsplaining” his genius-level schemes; and Beckett, ever eager to plunge into reckless action and nearly nonverbal in English but with an extraordinary gift for nonhuman tongues. In the end they emerge triumphant, though threatened with mind wipe if they ever interfere in fairy affairs again. Yeah, right. Human characters seem to be default white; “hybrid” is used to describe nonhuman characters of mixed heritage.
Like its bestselling progenitors, a nonstop spinoff afroth with high tech, spectacular magic, and silly business. (Fantasy. 11-13)Pub Date: Nov. 5, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-368-04375-5
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Disney-Hyperion
Review Posted Online: July 13, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2019
The 10th and final full-length episode in an alternate-Earth series that's just about reached its sell-by date unites the five members of the central cast in yet another rescue mission to a distant land. This time its a thinly disguised medieval Japan, where bluff young warrior Horace has been swept up in the entourage accompanying a kindly emperor who is on the run from a vicious usurper. Thanks to a sequence of massive coincidences, he is soon joined in a remote mountain fortress by Rangers Will (who graduated from "apprentice" about five volumes ago) and his crusty mentor Halt, plus temperamental Princess Evanlyn and her spunky frenemy Alyss. While the usurper and his forces obligingly winter nearby, the menfolk train a peasant army for the true emperor while Evanlyn and Alyss set out to recruit more allies and have an air-clearing heart-to-heart about who really loves whom. By the end battles are won, bad guys slain, feasts held and everyone heads home for weddings and further adventures. The "keep it simple" approach has served Flanagan—and readers who prefer predictable plots and easily recognizable settings and character types—well, but the formula has staled. "The Final Battle" blazoned on the cover indicates a recognition of this fact, though loose ends leave open the possibility of further, as-yet-unplanned developments. Here's hoping a break will restore zing to future adventures. (Fantasy. 11-13)
Pub Date: April 1, 2011
ISBN: 978-0-399-25500-7
Page Count: 448
Publisher: Philomel
Review Posted Online: April 4, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2011
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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