Eleven-year-old Vivian, kidnapped to far-distant future Time City by mistake, proves to be one of the City's saviors. Vivian Smith has gone to the West Country to escape the bombing of London at the beginning of WW II when she is unexpectedly met by imperious Jonathan Lee and whisked to Time City, which stands on its own piece of recycled time. Jonathan and his friend Sam explain that they had mistaken Vivian for the Time Lady, a mythical heroine or destroyer—their eavesdropping got muddled—who may be the cause of the deterioration of Time City. Convinced of their mistake, they pass Vivian off as cousin Vivian Lee. daughter of 20th-century Observers. The three bounce back and forth in time, trying to discover who is stealing the polarities, hidden by mysterious creator Faber John, that keep Time City whole. Aided by grouchy Tutor Wilander, android Elio, and a mysterious woman who saves Jonathan's life, they unmask Vivian Lee and her parents as the villians, reunite the pieces of Faber John and the pieces of the polarity, and save the city. As in earlier books such as Howl's Moving Castle, there is never a dull moment, with a new crisis or a new twist at every turn. While time-twisters never bear much scrutiny, Jones manages to resolve paradoxes and scattered clues without leaving the reader feeling cheated. Meanwhile, the book bounces merrily along, gathering momentum and generating dramatic tension. In all, a spirited, funny, and entertaining story.
Pub Date: Sept. 21, 1987
ISBN: 0142420158
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Greenwillow Books
Review Posted Online: April 30, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 1987
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
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
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