Full measures of swordplay and sorcery, along with a healthy grain or two of salt added to keep things from getting overly...
Plenty of hard-fought skirmishes and an entertainingly diverse supporting cast keep this quest fantasy’s middle volume on the right track.
Finding his way back to Lyrian from this world, hero-in-training Jason rejoins fellow “Beyonder” Rachel and several Lyrian allies in a nascent rebellion against evil emperor/wizard Maldor. With imperial troops constantly in hot pursuit, the company survives attacks from giant swamp monsters, blood-craving zombies, plant people and others, as well as encounters with deadly natural hazards, to gather special weapons and allies, reluctant or otherwise. Though surmounting several individual challenges, Jason is largely along for the ride here, but others pick up the slack—particularly Rachel, struggling to control rapidly developing magical talents; Ferrin, a “displacer” with suspect loyalties who can detach while continuing to use hands, eyes or any other part of himself; and Aram, a pipsqueak by day but a giant warrior at night. The author threads glib banter (“Everybody should get to clobber a princess at least once”) and quirky twists into his already-speedy plot to ensure that there’s never a dull moment. He brings the episode to a close with an ominous but refreshingly lucid prophecy that sends cast members off on separate missions to set up the closer’s climactic confrontation.
Full measures of swordplay and sorcery, along with a healthy grain or two of salt added to keep things from getting overly earnest. (Quest fantasy. 10-13)Pub Date: March 20, 2012
ISBN: 978-1-4169-9794-8
Page Count: 512
Publisher: Aladdin
Review Posted Online: Nov. 8, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2011
Is this the end? Well, no…the series will stagger on through at least one more scheduled sequel.
Sure signs that the creative wells are running dry at last, the Captain’s ninth, overstuffed outing both recycles a villain (see Book 4) and offers trendy anti-bullying wish fulfillment.
Not that there aren’t pranks and envelope-pushing quips aplenty. To start, in an alternate ending to the previous episode, Principal Krupp ends up in prison (“…a lot like being a student at Jerome Horwitz Elementary School, except that the prison had better funding”). There, he witnesses fellow inmate Tippy Tinkletrousers (aka Professor Poopypants) escape in a giant Robo-Suit (later reduced to time-traveling trousers). The villain sets off after George and Harold, who are in juvie (“not much different from our old school…except that they have library books here.”). Cut to five years previous, in a prequel to the whole series. George and Harold link up in kindergarten to reduce a quartet of vicious bullies to giggling insanity with a relentless series of pranks involving shaving cream, spiders, effeminate spoof text messages and friendship bracelets. Pilkey tucks both topical jokes and bathroom humor into the cartoon art, and ups the narrative’s lexical ante with terms like “pharmaceuticals” and “theatrical flair.” Unfortunately, the bullies’ sad fates force Krupp to resign, so he’s not around to save the Earth from being destroyed later on by Talking Toilets and other invaders…
Is this the end? Well, no…the series will stagger on through at least one more scheduled sequel. (Fantasy. 10-12)Pub Date: Aug. 28, 2012
ISBN: 978-0-545-17534-0
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: June 19, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2012
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Rich and strange (and kitted out with an eye-catching cover), but stronger in the set pieces than the internal logic.
Chainani works an elaborate sea change akin to Gregory Maguire’s Wicked (1995), though he leaves the waters muddied.
Every four years, two children, one regarded as particularly nice and the other particularly nasty, are snatched from the village of Gavaldon by the shadowy School Master to attend the divided titular school. Those who survive to graduate become major or minor characters in fairy tales. When it happens to sweet, Disney princess–like Sophie and her friend Agatha, plain of features, sour of disposition and low of self-esteem, they are both horrified to discover that they’ve been dropped not where they expect but at Evil and at Good respectively. Gradually—too gradually, as the author strings out hundreds of pages of Hogwarts-style pranks, classroom mishaps and competitions both academic and romantic—it becomes clear that the placement wasn’t a mistake at all. Growing into their true natures amid revelations and marked physical changes, the two spark escalating rivalry between the wings of the school. This leads up to a vicious climactic fight that sees Good and Evil repeatedly switching sides. At this point, readers are likely to feel suddenly left behind, as, thanks to summary deus ex machina resolutions, everything turns out swell(ish).
Rich and strange (and kitted out with an eye-catching cover), but stronger in the set pieces than the internal logic. (Fantasy. 11-13)Pub Date: May 14, 2013
ISBN: 978-0-06-210489-2
Page Count: 496
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Feb. 12, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2013
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