A well-wrought debut with enough of a start on both the plot and worldbuilding to leave readers impatient for the follow-up.
Searching for his missing parents, a lad finds himself in a world where sky ships sail over oceans not of water, but of heaped-up appliances and other junk.
Left with an odd key and a set of even odder instructions (“push every red button you find”), 12-year-old Jed crawls through a tunnel behind the dishwasher from this world to the “junkyard”—a vast rubbish heap in which human scavengers battle swarms of quasi-mechanical “dread” assembled from random bric-a-brac for cans of food and other useful treasures. Armed only with a can opener and cooking skills, both of which are revelations to the junkyard’s residents, Jed leverages a berth aboard the flying tugboat Bessie. With his newfound allies, he sets out on a search that takes him through devastating junkstorms and other life-threatening adventures into the clutches of Lyle, the wily, golden, “meat sack”–hating dread king. As it turns out, Jed is not at all the ordinary white boy he had supposed himself but had been spirited from the junkyard as a baby and has a central role to play in Lyle’s schemes of conquest. And, in the course of a dramatic escape, Jed (literally) unlocks hidden potential of his own—the exact nature of which Bohls leaves to future episodes.
A well-wrought debut with enough of a start on both the plot and worldbuilding to leave readers impatient for the follow-up. (Fantasy. 10-13)Pub Date: Dec. 6, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-4847-2923-6
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Disney-Hyperion
Review Posted Online: Aug. 29, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2016
Still pedal to the metal, but running on fumes at this point.
Young bandits complete personal quests while creating immense explosions and massive havoc in this high-action trilogy closer.
Playing to his strengths, Stroud strings together a bank robbery, an ambush that nearly sees Scarlett McCain eaten by cannibalistic Tainted, and other increasingly lurid, violent set pieces, propelling a plot that moves along at a breakneck pace to a climactic battle. In interspersed chapters, neither Thomas (the little brother Scarlett was forced to abandon and has been seeking for eight years) nor the faithful sidekick he acquires come off as more than pale reflections of the lead duo as the author moves them mechanically through contrived adventures. Scarlett’s own sidekick Albert Browne’s search for the secret prison where he and other children with psychic powers have been ruthlessly trained is similarly cursorily wrapped up. And what of the series’ broader ongoing struggles with the local slave trade and the corrupt Faith Houses? Here, too, the author drops the ball at the end. Readers who delight in titanic explosions, swashbuckling young troublemakers escaping through hails of gunfire, and foes coming to squishy ends will be pleased; those who like stories that offer more definite closure and their heroes and supporting characters to show meaningful growth, less so. Some racial diversity is cued in the cast surrounding the white leads.
Still pedal to the metal, but running on fumes at this point. (maps) (Science fiction. 10-13)Pub Date: March 25, 2025
ISBN: 9780593707364
Page Count: 448
Publisher: Knopf
Review Posted Online: Feb. 1, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2025
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Wholesome shading to bland, but well-stocked with exotic creatures and locales, plus an agreeable cast headed by a child...
A San Diego preteen learns that she’s an elf, with a place in magic school if she moves to the elves’ hidden realm.
Having felt like an outsider since a knock on the head at age 5 left her able to read minds, Sophie is thrilled when hunky teen stranger Fitz convinces her that she’s not human at all and transports her to the land of Lumenaria, where the ageless elves live. Taken in by a loving couple who run a sanctuary for extinct and mythical animals, Sophie quickly gathers friends and rivals at Foxfire, a distinctly Hogwarts-style school. She also uncovers both clues to her mysterious origins and hints that a rash of strangely hard-to-quench wildfires back on Earth are signs of some dark scheme at work. Though Messenger introduces several characters with inner conflicts and ambiguous agendas, Sophie herself is more simply drawn as a smart, radiant newcomer who unwillingly becomes the center of attention while developing what turn out to be uncommonly powerful magical abilities—reminiscent of the younger Harry Potter, though lacking that streak of mischievousness that rescues Harry from seeming a little too perfect. The author puts her through a kidnapping and several close brushes with death before leaving her poised, amid hints of a higher destiny and still-anonymous enemies, for sequels.
Wholesome shading to bland, but well-stocked with exotic creatures and locales, plus an agreeable cast headed by a child who, while overly fond of screaming, rises to every challenge. (Fantasy. 10-12)Pub Date: Oct. 2, 2012
ISBN: 978-1-4424-4593-2
Page Count: 496
Publisher: Aladdin
Review Posted Online: July 17, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2012
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