A brisk, entertaining tale that unfolds in a wonderfully bizarre world.
In this YA fantasy, a teenager finds himself in a strange and precarious land to help a princess he’s never met.
Above the Thames,Londoner Archie spies a girl disappearing through a hole suddenly materializing in the stone floor of a bridge. As many teen boys would do, he soon follows her. He’s suddenly in the Merge, an odd place that’s covered in vines and has no sun. He meets up with the girl, Inez, who tells Archie startling news. He’s a locksmith—able to travel between worlds by opening locks most can’t see. At first, Archie sticks around to learn all about the Merge. But Inez needs a locksmith for her mission, a job Archie gleefully accepts. Though she keeps the operation’s details to herself, Inez’s plan involves a missing princess and a mysterious vote. Meanwhile, the realms in the Merge are in danger; of the nine, three have “fallen.” Looking to take over the remaining realms is a group with diabolical intentions called the SubMerged. The band’s assassins had been chasing Inez before she and Archie even connected. With time running out, the two hurry to reach a kingdom before the enigmatic voting takes place. Shan’s series opener, which originally appeared as three shorter books, presents a cohesive story. Much of this enjoyable volume focuses on Archie’s familiarizing himself with the Merge. Despite offering abundant dialogue, the author doesn’t bog down the tale with Merge particulars. The details eventually come to light throughout Archie’s rousing adventures. Along the way, a king calls him “a Lox,” a locksmith. The hero’s escapades include fleeing horrific creatures known as hell jackals and liberating a prisoner from the Merge city of Suanpan, a “giant casino.” The fast-paced narrative culminates with Inez’s stunning ploy, which isn’t entirely clear until the end. There’s also a surprising resolution, considering that a sequel is planned. Still, Shan leaves plenty of avenues to explore in the second installment, from Archie’s loss of his foster brother to Inez’s mostly unknown past.
A brisk, entertaining tale that unfolds in a wonderfully bizarre world. (author’s bibliography)Pub Date: Oct. 31, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-91-000914-7
Page Count: 506
Publisher: Home of the Damned
Review Posted Online: May 14, 2021
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A lackluster and sometimes disturbing mishmash of overused tropes.
The Plague has left a population divided between Elites and Ordinaries—those who have powers and those who don’t; now, an Ordinary teen fights for her life.
Paedyn Gray witnessed the king kill her father five years ago, and she’s been thieving and sleeping rough ever since, all while faking Psychic abilities. When she inadvertently saves the life of Prince Kai, she becomes embroiled in the Purging Trials, a competition to commemorate the sickness that killed most of the kingdom’s Ordinaries. Kai’s duties as the future Enforcer include eradicating any remaining Ordinaries, and these Trials are his chance to prove that he’s internalized his brutal training. But Kai can’t help but find Pae’s blue eyes, silver hair, and unabashed attitude enchanting. She likewise struggles to resist his stormy gray eyes, dark hair, and rakish behavior, even as they’re pitted against each other in the Trials and by the king himself. Scenes and concepts that are strongly reminiscent of the Hunger Games fall flat: They aren’t bolstered by the original’s heart or worldbuilding logic that would have justified a few extreme story elements. Illogical leaps and inconsistent characterizations abound, with lighthearted romantic interludes juxtaposed against genocide, child abuse, and sadism. These elements, which are not sufficiently addressed, combined with the use of ableist language, cannot be erased by any amount of romantic banter. Main characters are cued white; the supporting cast has some brown-skinned characters.
A lackluster and sometimes disturbing mishmash of overused tropes. (map) (Fantasy. 14-18)Pub Date: Nov. 7, 2023
ISBN: 9798987380406
Page Count: 538
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Sept. 9, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2023
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
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