Nevertheless, with its gorgeous language and thoughtful themes, this is a book to be savored rather than devoured.
Mirrors and magic collide in this third volume of a lyrical fantasy quartet.
Canterstock College isn’t much of a wizarding school anymore, but Tamrin is still furious when she is unjustly expelled; resentful and determined, she follows the only clue to her past. Meanwhile, the wizard apprentice Sam feels compelled to seek out the young girl he barely knows. They accumulate an odd assortment of allies on their separate journeys to a horrific confrontation with the twisted wizard Ash, now on the verge of escape. The only barrier to Ash’s scheme to warp magic itself into her own monstrous reflection is the strange bond Tam and Sam share….Despite the heightened external stakes, the gruesome encounters with Ash and her loathsome minions, the real impetus behind the story is each character’s need to answer the leitmotif inquiry: “What am I?” Rich, sensuous prose, dense with potent metaphors and allusions, channels a narrative that loops around itself, requiring many passages to be read more than once to get their full impact; indeed, the final battle is described so elliptically as to be almost opaque (and unfortunately anticlimactic). Some characters and plot points are left dangling, leaving readers to wait for the final volume for definitive resolution.
Nevertheless, with its gorgeous language and thoughtful themes, this is a book to be savored rather than devoured. (Fantasy. 10-16)Pub Date: Feb. 3, 2015
ISBN: 978-1-61963-528-9
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Bloomsbury
Review Posted Online: Nov. 12, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2014
Guaranteed to enchant, enthrall, and enmagick.
An elderly witch, a magical girl, a brave carpenter, a wise monster, a tiny dragon, paper birds, and a madwoman converge to thwart a magician who feeds on sorrow.
Every year Elders of the Protectorate leave a baby in the forest, warning everyone an evil Witch demands this sacrifice. In reality, every year, a kind witch named Xan rescues the babies and find families for them. One year Xan saves a baby girl with a crescent birthmark who accidentally feeds on moonlight and becomes “enmagicked.” Magic babies can be tricky, so Xan adopts little Luna herself and lovingly raises her, with help from an ancient swamp monster and a chatty, wee dragon. Luna’s magical powers emerge as her 13th birthday approaches. Meanwhile, Luna’s deranged real mother enters the forest to find her daughter. Simultaneously, a young carpenter from the Protectorate enters the forest to kill the Witch and end the sacrifices. Xan also enters the forest to rescue the next sacrificed child, and Luna, the monster, and the dragon enter the forest to protect Xan. In the dramatic denouement, a volcano erupts, the real villain attempts to destroy all, and love prevails. Replete with traditional motifs, this nontraditional fairy tale boasts sinister and endearing characters, magical elements, strong storytelling, and unleashed forces. Luna has black eyes, curly, black hair, and “amber” skin.
Guaranteed to enchant, enthrall, and enmagick. (Fantasy. 10-14)Pub Date: Aug. 9, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-61620-567-6
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Algonquin
Review Posted Online: May 13, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2016
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
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