Ultimately forgettable.
The lukewarm sequel to the tepid supervillain series opener The Vindico (2012) underwhelms.
The five former protégés of the villainous Vindico have only two more months of life among the ordinary before at last being allowed to join the League of Heroes. The kids find their time in the doldrums cut short when they are attacked by a splinter group of the League—what gives?—and one of them, computer-genius Emily, is kidnapped by a mysterious third party who controls a team of superpowered Wraiths. Could her abduction be connected to the recent disappearances of League members? James, Lana, Sam and Hayden travel from one superbase to another in search of their friend, leaving a trail of wreckage in their wake as they fend off rebel Heroes, Wraiths and the Vindico, who are, predictably enough, released from their imprisonment to join the fray. King’s sequel suffers from the same flaws that characterized the first book: bland protagonists, double and triple crosses that don’t do anything but move the plot from point A to point B, less-than-compelling motivations behind the various villains’ actions, overwrought dialogue and clumsy exposition. Readers new to the series will be lost in a thicket of comic-book names and superpowers, and even those familiar with the first book may find keeping track of the expanding cast a challenge.
Ultimately forgettable. (Adventure. 10-14)Pub Date: June 27, 2013
ISBN: 978-0-399-25655-4
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Putnam
Review Posted Online: April 2, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2013
This is no didactic near-future warning of present evils, but a cinematic adventure featuring endearing, compelling heroes
A gripping thriller in dystopic future Los Angeles.
Fifteen-year-olds June and Day live completely different lives in the glorious Republic. June is rich and brilliant, the only candidate ever to get a perfect score in the Trials, and is destined for a glowing career in the military. She looks forward to the day when she can join up and fight the Republic’s treacherous enemies east of the Dakotas. Day, on the other hand, is an anonymous street rat, a slum child who failed his own Trial. He's also the Republic's most wanted criminal, prone to stealing from the rich and giving to the poor. When tragedies strike both their families, the two brilliant teens are thrown into direct opposition. In alternating first-person narratives, Day and June experience coming-of-age adventures in the midst of spying, theft and daredevil combat. Their voices are distinct and richly drawn, from Day’s self-deprecating affection for others to June's Holmesian attention to detail. All the flavor of a post-apocalyptic setting—plagues, class warfare, maniacal soldiers—escalates to greater complexity while leaving space for further worldbuilding in the sequel.
This is no didactic near-future warning of present evils, but a cinematic adventure featuring endearing, compelling heroes . (Science fiction. 12-14)Pub Date: Nov. 29, 2011
ISBN: 978-0-399-25675-2
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Putnam
Review Posted Online: April 8, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2011
BOOK TO SCREEN
Characteristically provocative gothic comedy, with sublime undertones.
An exhilarating summer marked by death, gore and fire sparks deep thoughts in a small-town lad not uncoincidentally named “Jack Gantos.”
The gore is all Jack’s, which to his continuing embarrassment “would spray out of my nose holes like dragon flames” whenever anything exciting or upsetting happens. And that would be on every other page, seemingly, as even though Jack’s feuding parents unite to ground him for the summer after several mishaps, he does get out. He mixes with the undertaker’s daughter, a band of Hell’s Angels out to exact fiery revenge for a member flattened in town by a truck and, especially, with arthritic neighbor Miss Volker, for whom he furnishes the “hired hands” that transcribe what becomes a series of impassioned obituaries for the local paper as elderly town residents suddenly begin passing on in rapid succession. Eventually the unusual body count draws the—justified, as it turns out—attention of the police. Ultimately, the obits and the many Landmark Books that Jack reads (this is 1962) in his hours of confinement all combine in his head to broaden his perspective about both history in general and the slow decline his own town is experiencing.
Characteristically provocative gothic comedy, with sublime undertones. (Autobiographical fiction. 11-13)Pub Date: Sept. 13, 2011
ISBN: 978-0-374-37993-3
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Review Posted Online: April 5, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2011
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