Opening a new plotline set in the Dungeons & Dragons Forgotten Realms, this father-son collaboration sends Maimun—a 12-year-old orphan with a mysterious past who bears a god-connected stone that seems to radiate good luck—fleeing from the very quick and powerful demon Asbeel. Speaking like Sheherazade to a sword-wielding captor at the opening, Maimun describes in episodic flashbacks how his life turned into one long chase over land and sea once he was given the stone by his enigmatic foster parent, Perrault. The pace never falters, the cast is positively festooned with pirates and menacing magical creatures (such characters from parallel stories as Drizzt Do’Urden the Dark Elf also put in appearances) and Maimun’s narrative ends on a cliffhanger that will leave readers slavering for the next episode, due out in 2009. Light on explicit violence, gore or death despite plenty of opportunities for all three, this makes sturdy fare for younger fans of D&D or sword-and-sorcery fantasy in general. (Fantasy. 10-12)
Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2008
ISBN: 978-0-7869-5094-2
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Mirrorstone/Wizards of the Coast
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2008
The worldbuilding of countless eco-thrillers serves here as the setting for a classic Western. A Western, that is, with plankton instead of cows, harpoons instead of six-shooters and submarines instead of covered wagons. Ty lives below the ocean, in a future in which water levels have risen and Topsiders live cramped together in unbearable conditions. Undersea, any brave settler can stake a claim and build a huge homestead. Ty was born down here, and he loves it. When he encounters freckle-faced Topsider orphan Gemma, he revels in showing her his world, from inflatable houses shaped like jellyfish to beautiful schools of swordfish. If only they weren’t in danger from the villainous Seablite gang that keeps attacking homesteads! This caper features a slew of Western standards—the crabby old doctor (“Doc”), the saloon filled with bandanna-clad thugs, the posse of furious citizens—and a few plot twists keep the tension high. A thrilling conversion of the classics to one of our newer frontiers. (Science fiction. 10-12)
Pub Date: May 1, 2010
ISBN: 978-0-545-17814-3
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: Jan. 13, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2010
Life in the seaside village has been hard for Adrianne and her family, even before the arrival of the mermaid. Since Papa’s death, they’ve been living with horrible Auntie Minnah, the village boys ignore Adrianne in favor of wealthier and prettier girls and the villagers despise the whole family. Adrianne gets the opportunity for her dream job, but as soon as things start looking up, the Windwaithe Mermaid comes, summoning Adrianne and terrifying the superstitious villagers. Now Adrianne needs to make a choice between a magical life of undersea romance and the poverty and degradation she knows on land. It ought to be an easy choice, but perhaps not. Lucky, lucky Adrianne. Her magical adventure will bring out her true potential—as a girl who is “quite attractive” and whose outer beauty is now visible both to herself and to the handsome boys of the island. Readers obsessed with paranormal romance could do worse, but they probably won’t remember this for very long. (Fantasy. 10-12)
Pub Date: July 1, 2010
ISBN: 978-0-545-09734-5
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: June 2, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2010
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