An electrifying start to a YA series that feels like it can go anywhere in the galaxy.
In the Pershings’ YA sci-fi debut, a group of teenagers develop superpowers and learn that their existence threatens an intergalactic empire.
Fourteen-year-old Tanner and his 12-year-old sister, Ryland, are the middle children in an average family from Wethersfield, Connecticut. Ryland is beautiful and popular, but Tanner is small for his age. Their normal lives are upended when they confront a teenager named Kai, who’s been stalking Ryland. Kai pulls a knife, but Ryland somehow disarms him with super-speed; he then tells her, “[Y]ou just Shifted.” The siblings’ parents soon confess that the whole family is from another planet, and now that Tanner and Ryland have reached puberty, their Shifter abilities, which come from adrenal-gland bursts, have kicked in. To their astonishment, the kids also learn that they were brought to Earth to escape a Shifter society that wanted to kill its own children, due to a prophecy that stated that a “young Shifter would change the balance” and allow Ordinaries (non-powered slaves) to rule. Unfortunately, evil Shifter intermediaries known as Keepers are already hunting Tanner, Ryland, Kai and other superpowered youths. Can the siblings protect their family and friends against the threat? The authors boldly show their love of comic-book superheroes in this charged and often hilarious narrative. The story segments alternate between Tanner’s and Ryland’s perspectives, which lets the teens entertainingly rib each other, as when Ryland says her brother “did a half decent job setting up our predicament,” but “I am definitely the right person to tell the interesting part of the story.” Fans of Superman (and Supergirl) will enjoy the protagonists’ alien origins, and X-Men readers should appreciate the youths-against-the-world theme. The story flows organically, putting intriguing helpers and haters in the kids’ path, although their time on the lam stretches a bit long. Nonetheless, the regularly occurring twists and explosive finale will keep readers riveted. Finally, the book brilliantly teases a possible future tale about another Shifter-ruled alien world.
An electrifying start to a YA series that feels like it can go anywhere in the galaxy.Pub Date: Aug. 2, 2013
ISBN: 978-1491091647
Page Count: 372
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: Dec. 17, 2014
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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 pleasing premise for book lovers.
A fantasy-loving bookworm makes a wonderful, terrible bargain.
When sixth grader Poppy Woodlock’s historic preservationist parents move the family to the Oregon coast to work on the titular stately home, Poppy’s sure she’ll find magic. Indeed, the exiled water nymph in the manor’s ruined swimming pool grants a wish, but: “Magic isn’t free. It cosssts.” The price? Poppy’s favorite book, The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. In return she receives Sampson, a winged lion cub who is everything Poppy could have hoped for. But she soon learns that the nymph didn’t take just her own physical book—she erased Narnia from Poppy’s world. And it’s just the first loss: Soon, Poppy’s grandmother’s journal’s gone, then The Odyssey, and more. The loss is heartbreaking, but Sampson’s a wonderful companion, particularly as Poppy’s finding middle school a tough adjustment. Hartman’s premise is beguiling—plenty of readers will identify with Poppy, both as a fellow bibliophile and as a kid struggling to adapt. Poppy’s repeatedly expressed faith that unveiling Sampson will bring some sort of vindication wears thin, but that does not detract from the central drama. It’s a pity that the named real-world books Poppy reads are notably lacking in diversity; a story about the power of literature so limited in imagination lets both itself and readers down. Main characters are cued White; there is racial diversity in the supporting cast. Chapters open with atmospheric spot art. (This review has been updated to reflect the final illustrations.)
A pleasing premise for book lovers. (Fantasy. 9-12)Pub Date: May 2, 2023
ISBN: 9780316448222
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: Feb. 24, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2023
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