A vibrant narrative and a cute story in need of a bit more drama.
Whimsical, G-rated, juvenile fantasy.
Leisha and John are normal siblings leading normal teenage lives. Their normalcy crumbles, however, when an errant soccer ball sends Leisha tumbling into the heart of an enchanted tree. When John follows, their adventures begin. Considering the circumstances, the kids seem insufficiently fazed, even when they discover they are trapped, or when they descend a set of stairs and find a dragon at the bottom, or when their housecat, Mini, begins speaking English to them. The dragon is, in fact, a dimar, a race of furry dragons endowed with wondrous magical powers. This particular dimar, Mykal Elyot, was transported to the human world four centuries earlier by his mother before she was killed by lightning. John, Leisha and Mykal become fast friends and the children quickly learn Mykal’s history through the “memory stones” his mother left in their tree-cave lair. Mykal, it turns out, is the rightful king of his realm, but his mother was forced to flee with him before he had even hatched because his evil uncle, Shua, murdered his father to usurp the throne. Determined to help Mykal reclaim his birthright, Leisha jumps into a portal linking this world to Mykal’s, leaving John, Mykal and a nosy neighbor little choice but to follow. Once there, they must rely on one another—and on Mykal’s untested dragon skills—to survive against Shua and his hostile dragons. To make matters worse, the other dimars distrust Mykal and flee every time he approaches. Fortunately, Mykal discovers a special protector in his native land. But whether he can rally the dimars and save the land from his uncle’s tyranny remains to be seen. Blue’s prose, while pedantic and slow in spots, otherwise conjures a charming innocence, and her narration remains focused on the small wonders of magic and friendship rather than the overarching backdrop of regicide and oppression. While the teen’s constant bickering and Mykal’s tendency to be a little too literal-minded keeps the reader giggling, the lack of any parallel or subplots deprives the story of dramatic tension and leaves it a little too sequential, even for middle-schoolers who expect more complex fare these days.
A vibrant narrative and a cute story in need of a bit more drama.Pub Date: Nov. 4, 2006
ISBN: 978-1-4257-3940-9
Page Count: 104
Publisher: Xlibris
Review Posted Online: June 2, 2010
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Lush, gorgeous, precise language and propulsive plotting sweep readers into a story as intelligent as it is atmospheric.
In 16th-century Madrid, a crypto-Jew with a talent for casting spells tries to steer clear of the Inquisition.
Luzia Cotado, a scullion and an orphan, has secrets to keep: “It was a game she and her mother had played, saying one thing and thinking another, the bits and pieces of Hebrew handed down like chipped plates.” Also handed down are “refranes”—proverbs—in “not quite Spanish, just as Luzia was not quite Spanish.” When Luzia sings the refranes, they take on power. “Aboltar cazal, aboltar mazal” (“A change of scene, a change of fortune”) can mend a torn gown or turn burnt bread into a perfect loaf; “Quien no risica, no rosica” (“Whoever doesn’t laugh, doesn’t bloom”) can summon a riot of foliage in the depths of winter. The Inquisition hangs over the story like Chekhov’s famous gun on the wall. When Luzia’s employer catches her using magic, the ambitions of both mistress and servant catapult her into fame and danger. A new, even more ambitious patron instructs his supernatural servant, Guillén Santángel, to train Luzia for a magical contest. Santángel, not Luzia, is the familiar of the title; he has been tricked into trading his freedom and luck to his master’s family in exchange for something he no longer craves but can’t give up. The novel comes up against an issue common in fantasy fiction: Why don’t the characters just use their magic to solve all their problems? Bardugo has clearly given it some thought, but her solutions aren’t quite convincing, especially toward the end of the book. These small faults would be harder to forgive if she weren’t such a beautiful writer. Part fairy tale, part political thriller, part romance, the novel unfolds like a winter tree bursting into unnatural bloom in response to one of Luzia’s refranes, as she and Santángel learn about power, trust, betrayal, and love.
Lush, gorgeous, precise language and propulsive plotting sweep readers into a story as intelligent as it is atmospheric.Pub Date: April 9, 2024
ISBN: 9781250884251
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Flatiron Books
Review Posted Online: Feb. 3, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2024
Read this for the action-packed plot, not character development or worldbuilding.
On the orders of her mother, a woman goes to dragon-riding school.
Even though her mother is a general in Navarre’s army, 20-year-old Violet Sorrengail was raised by her father to follow his path as a scribe. After his death, though, Violet's mother shocks her by forcing her to enter the elite and deadly dragon rider academy at Basgiath War College. Most students die at the War College: during training sessions, at the hands of their classmates, or by the very dragons they hope to one day be paired with. From Day One, Violet is targeted by her classmates, some because they hate her mother, others because they think she’s too physically frail to succeed. She must survive a daily gauntlet of physical challenges and the deadly attacks of classmates, which she does with the help of secret knowledge handed down by her two older siblings, who'd been students there before her. Violet is at the mercy of the plot rather than being in charge of it, hurtling through one obstacle after another. As a result, the story is action-packed and fast-paced, but Violet is a strange mix of pure competence and total passivity, always managing to come out on the winning side. The book is categorized as romantasy, with Violet pulled between the comforting love she feels from her childhood best friend, Dain Aetos, and the incendiary attraction she feels for family enemy Xaden Riorson. However, the way Dain constantly undermines Violet's abilities and his lack of character development make this an unconvincing storyline. The plots and subplots aren’t well-integrated, with the first half purely focused on Violet’s training, followed by a brief detour for romance, and then a final focus on outside threats.
Read this for the action-packed plot, not character development or worldbuilding.Pub Date: May 2, 2023
ISBN: 9781649374042
Page Count: 528
Publisher: Red Tower
Review Posted Online: Jan. 12, 2024
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