Readers who liked the first novel will enjoy the fleshed-out world; others (especially readers frustrated with Jordan’s...
Following the events of Weather Witch (2013), Jordan trains to become a Conductor—the human battery of an airship—while her love interest and would-be rescuer falls in with sky pirates.
Aboard the Artemesia, there’s a lot going on. Jordan is forced to use weather magic, an illusionist (the “Wandering Wallace”) forwards a mysterious agenda, and Bran (plus his partner and daughter) is held captive by Marion, a witch he Made—and they all take turns as point-of-view characters in third-person narration. Jordan’s slated to replace the ship’s dying Conductor once she learns the job. She’s still a doomed victim awaiting rescue when the captain, finding her beautiful, subjects her to new, adult horrors. Finally, she discovers the key to her powers: rage. Meanwhile, her sweetheart Rowen’s shanghaied onto a pirate airship, where he meets anti-slavery captain Elizabeth. She soon shows her quasi-captive the secret workings of her ship’s illegal steam technology. Of other subplots, the best involves corrupt Council members and their plot to maintain an unjust status quo. The rhetoric is decidedly current for the period setting: Elites discuss the political advantages of quagmire wars, and one character implores another: “Be the change you want to see.” With so many viewpoints and separate storylines, all plots inch along slowly, with their convergences only hinted at for future installments.
Readers who liked the first novel will enjoy the fleshed-out world; others (especially readers frustrated with Jordan’s passivity) should pass. (Fantasy. 13-16)Pub Date: Jan. 14, 2014
ISBN: 978-1-250-01865-6
Page Count: 320
Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin
Review Posted Online: Nov. 19, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2013
Returning fans, anyway, will pounce.
Houck kicks off a new story arc in the world of the Tiger’s Curse series with new tigers who live in a northerly setting.
The death of their widowed royal mother touches off a crisis in the Kievian Empire; neither Stacia nor Verusha Stepanov, 17-year-old sword-wielding twin sisters, wants to be named tsarina. But questions of succession get put on hold when a battle with a sorcerer inexplicably turns the two into nonspeaking Siberian tigers. Hints of a cure send them, along with a growing entourage of men to provide assistance (and, perforce, do all the talking), on a long trek. Though most of the cast sticks to genre type, Houck throws in a wild card in the form of hunky, inarticulate Nikolai, who joins the quest because he is enthralled by Verusha—and who also killed his whole family in an act of revenge. Occasional anachronistic dialogue (e.g., “Are you ready, ladies?”) disrupts the tale’s generally earnest tone, as do the clumsy attempts at banter. A third tiger, snarky and blind but conveniently able to see through others’ eyes, trots in late in the story. The events in this setup volume unfold with many a flashback and change in point of view and head toward no sort of resolution—only the cave-dwelling White Shaman of the Tundra’s advice that further journeys are in the offing. The central cast in this Russian-inspired fantasy world presents white; the Indigenous population includes nomadic reindeer herders.
Returning fans, anyway, will pounce. (Fantasy. 13-16)Pub Date: Sept. 10, 2024
ISBN: 9798212221696
Page Count: 350
Publisher: Blackstone
Review Posted Online: July 19, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2024
A glossy repackaging of a jejune tale.
A reissue of the 2016 novel published as Consider.
Alexandra Lucas and her boyfriend, Dominick, are about to start their senior year of high school when 500 vertexes—each one a doorway-shaped “hole into the fabric of the universe”—appear across the world, accompanied by holographic messages communicating news of Earth’s impending doom. The only escape is a one-way trip through the portals to a parallel future Earth. As people leave through the vertexes and the extinction event draws nearer, the world becomes increasingly unfamiliar. A lot has changed in the past several years, including expectations of mental health depictions in young adult literature; Alex’s struggle with anxiety and reliance on Ativan, which she calls her “little white savior” while initially discounting therapy as an intervention, make for a trite after-school special–level treatment of a complex situation; a short stint of effective therapy does finally occur but is so limited in duration that it contributes to the oversimplification of the topic. Alex also has unresolved issues with her Gulf War veteran father (who possibly grapples with PTSD). The slow pace of the plot as it depicts a crumbling society, along with stilted writing and insubstantial secondary characterization, limits the appeal of such a small-scale, personal story. Characters are minimally described and largely racially ambiguous; Alex has golden skin and curly brown hair.
A glossy repackaging of a jejune tale. (Science fiction. 13-16)Pub Date: June 6, 2023
ISBN: 978-1-72826-839-2
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Sourcebooks Fire
Review Posted Online: March 13, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2023
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