A lightning blast of a futuristic fantasy.
A hundred years in the future, an orphaned tailor’s apprentice joins the resistance to fight sorcerers who wield unchecked power over the former United States.
Fiora’s parents were killed by sorcerers, but she doesn’t believe that the resistance group known as the Incorruptibles are real until she meets one of them in person. After a fight against the Radiance, the “nameless, faceless group” that rules over the sorcerers, Captain Quinn whisks Fiora and her uncle Randal to safety, but Fiora begs to join Inc Academy and earns a place on a trial basis—until the results of her background check come in—to mixed reactions from her new squad, the Thistles. When problems begin plaguing the Incs, Fiora promises herself that she’ll find the spy in their midst. Readers will wonder, as Fiora does, who she can trust, even as she builds relationships with the other Thistles, and her understanding of the world becomes more nuanced as she questions long-held ideas. The sorcerers and Incs ultimately clash in a high-intensity, fast-paced action battle that forces Fiora into making a big decision and sets up for the sequel. Immersive worldbuilding, strong characters, and excellent pacing make for a breathless series opener with a big scope. Curly-haired Fiora is “tall and plump,” is attracted to girls, and has Jewish heritage. Other characters are diverse in skin tone, ability, sexuality, and gender identity.
A lightning blast of a futuristic fantasy. (Fantasy. 10-14)Pub Date: June 10, 2025
ISBN: 9781665968669
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Aladdin
Review Posted Online: March 22, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2025
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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