An odd but well-executed idea.
Young Jack London continues his supernatural adventures as the authors soup up London’s original The Sea Wolf to fit the current paranormal craze.
In this second installment of their new series, Golden and Lebbon use the major plot points of London’s 1904 adventure as a loose framework for a new story that features a teenage Jack fighting werewolves. Most of the names remain the same (but alas, they exclude Oofty-Oofty), although they switch a few—here, this ship is the Larsen and the captain is called Ghost. London and the brutal captain have philosophical arguments about the virtues of human versus animal nature. Of course, young Jack will wind up fighting the crew of werewolves and Ghost himself. Whatever one may think of the worth of the authors’ concept, they produce an exciting tale that’s written with considerable oomph, and Ruth’s bold, charcoal drawings brilliantly capture the book’s action. However, their captain doesn’t linger in the mind as does London’s original Wolf Larsen, and their adventure, although suspenseful, pales against London’s efforts. Yet their romance passages trump London’s antiquated romance subplot, with the introduction of a witch who captures young Jack’s heart. Certainly the writing quality here surpasses that of most paranormal adventures today. And perhaps it might win London a new readership.
An odd but well-executed idea. (Paranormal adventure. 10-16)Pub Date: Feb. 28, 2012
ISBN: 978-0-06-186320-2
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Dec. 20, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2012
An epic fantasy with timeless themes and unforgettable characters.
Two young people save the world and all the magic in it in this series opener.
When tall, dark-haired, white-skinned Christopher Forrester goes to stay with his grandfather in Scotland, he ventures to the top of a forbidden hill and discovers astonishing magical creatures. His grandfather explains that Christopher’s family are guardians of the “way through” to the Archipelago, where the Glimourie Tree grows—the source of glimourie, or the world’s magic. Black-haired, olive-skinned Mal Arvorian, a girl from the Archipelago, is being pursued by a murderer, and she asks Christopher for help, launching them both on a wild, dangerous journey to discover why the glimourie is disappearing and how to stop it. Together with a part-nereid woman, a ratatoska, a dragon, and a Berserker, they face an odyssey of dangerous tasks to find the Immortal, the only one who can reverse the draining of magic. Like Lyra and Will from Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials, Mal and Christopher sacrifice their innocence for experience, meeting every challenge with depthless courage until they finally reach the maze at the heart of it all. Rundell throws myriad obstacles in her characters’ way, but she gives them tools both tangible (a casapasaran, which always points the way home, and the glamry blade, which cuts through anything) and intangible (the desire “to protect something worth protecting” and an “insistence that the world is worth loving”). Final art not seen.
An epic fantasy with timeless themes and unforgettable characters. (map, bestiary) (Fantasy. 10-16)Pub Date: Sept. 10, 2024
ISBN: 9780593809860
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Knopf
Review Posted Online: May 30, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2024
SEEN & HEARD
Dark, seductive, but over-the-top: Characters and book alike will enthrall those who choose to play.
Garber returns to the world of bestseller Caraval (2017), this time with the focus on younger, more daring sister Donatella.
Valenda, capital of the empire, is host to the second of Legend’s magical games in a single year, and while Scarlett doesn’t want to play again, blonde Tella is eager for a chance to prove herself. She is haunted by the memory of her death in the last game and by the cursed Deck of Destiny she used as a child which foretold her loveless future. Garber has changed many of the rules of her expanding world, which now appears to be infused with magic and evil Fates. Despite a weak plot and ultraviolet prose (“He tasted like exquisite nightmares and stolen dreams, like the wings of fallen angels, and bottles of fresh moonlight.”), this is a tour de force of imagination. Themes of love, betrayal, and the price of magic (and desire) swirl like Caraval’s enchantments, and Dante’s sensuous kisses will thrill readers as much as they do Tella. The convoluted machinations of the Prince of Hearts (one of the Fates), Legend, and even the empress serve as the impetus for Tella’s story and set up future volumes which promise to go bigger. With descriptions focusing primarily on clothing, characters’ ethnicities are often indeterminate.
Dark, seductive, but over-the-top: Characters and book alike will enthrall those who choose to play. (glossary) (Fantasy. 12-16)Pub Date: May 29, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-250-09531-2
Page Count: 464
Publisher: Flatiron Books
Review Posted Online: March 19, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2018
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