Best read with its companion tome…let’s just say best read; wouldn’t want to anger the Dark Lord.
While the Dark Lord’s away, everyone begins living in peace and harmony, much to the chagrin of the White Wizard, Hasdruban.
Dirk Lloyd, or the Dark Lord, the Nameless One, the World Burner, the Sorcerer Supreme, etc., is still in exile on Earth in the body of a 12-year-old boy who lives with Christopher and his parents. Their friend Sooz (short for Susan) was accidentally sent to the Dark Lands, Dirk’s world of origin, when the trio attempted to magically send Dirk home. Now the boys have the added task of rescuing Sooz and a new impediment, in the form of a nanny who has a secret identity and is likely trying to kill Dirk. Since he’s no longer evil incarnate, her attempts fail miserably. Meanwhile, goth girl Sooz has befriended the Dark Lord’s minions (all that black!) and brought peace to his lands, much to the disbelief of Hasdruban (who’s probably actually more evil than the Dark Lord). Can Dirk and Christopher save Sooz? Does she want to be saved? Would Dirk really sacrifice his friends to become Dark Lord once more? Here’s hoping Thomson’s second Dark Lord title is not the last given the open ending. It is sarcastic British fantasy in the Terry Pratchett and Douglas Adams vein; it is a bit long and can tend toward silly, but it will satisfy fans of tongue-in-cheek.
Best read with its companion tome…let’s just say best read; wouldn’t want to anger the Dark Lord. (Humorous fantasy. 10-14)Pub Date: Feb. 4, 2014
ISBN: 978-0-8027-3522-5
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Walker
Review Posted Online: Nov. 19, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2013
BOOK REVIEW
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
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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