In an opener that’s stronger on character development than internal logic, Sutherland introduces a handful of teenagers with supernatural abilities who are suddenly cast seven decades into a future nearly devoid of humanity but well populated with robot predators and gene-spliced chimeras. For no evident reason beyond boosting the page count, all but one of the scattered protagonists have to travel thousands of miles, surviving various attacks in often-contrived ways in order to meet one another in New York’s Central Park. There, they learn that they are each members of a particular ancient pantheon, reborn to fight one another in an upcoming struggle for supremacy. Though dropping hints of this from the series title on, the author keeps both characters and readers in the dark too long. She is also inconsistent with details and invests scenario and cast alike with a glossy, designed feel reminiscent of classier video games. That last may actually draw some readers, but so far Sutherland only promises the level of imagination and humor that Rick Riordan delivers in his similarly premised Lightning Thief (2005) and Sea of Monsters (April 2006). (Fantasy. 11-13)
Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2006
ISBN: 0-06-075024-3
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Eos/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2006
An old gravedigger embeds five mild horror stories, all featuring young people, into an account of his peregrinations. In ``Catseye,'' Jessica and the malicious Kristen discover a backless closet in a witch's house; the trip that three teens are making to a party is interrupted when their car breaks down near a hungry couple's isolated shack; Brian brings a large and famished collection of mummified Egyptian animals to life; a prospective grave-robber is seized and buried by a living watchman and an animate corpse, working together; and, in ``Just Say Yes,'' Kelly is invited by her science teacher—and, to her amazement, her bubble-headed best friend—to be a werewolf. The stories—nearly free of explicit gore or violence—follow predictable paths and are written in a conventional style that's at odds with the narrator's gruff, personal voice. Compared to Gordon's The Burning Baby and Other Ghosts (p. 1273), this collection seems decidedly anemic. (Short Stories. 11-13)
Pub Date: Nov. 1, 1993
ISBN: 0-590-45341-6
Page Count: 160
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 1993
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
IN THE NEWS
A delicately macabre ambience infuses these tales from the Australian author of Speaking To Miranda (1992): a fugitive finds the story of her own life in an old book; a boy visiting his aunt's dying farm is haunted by dreams centering around ``The Dam'' and its fetid lake; ``The Thief in the Rocks'' and another malevolent spirit infecting ``The Greenhouse'' behave with chilling malice. The theme of anger also pervades tales of an abused shoplifter who finds someone to cling to ``At the Old Roxy,'' a bed-wetter who finally stops believing his father's ``Lies,'' and the title story, about two warring step-siblings, one of whom gleefully rescues the other from being buried in cement. Hostile indeed, and bizarre, though milder than Paul Jennings' Uncanny! and Unreal! (both 1991). (Fiction/Short stories. 11-13)
Pub Date: Feb. 1, 1994
ISBN: 0-590-46063-3
Page Count: 144
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 1994
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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