Review of The Burning Bridge, by John Flanagan

Adventure, Audiobooks, Children's Fiction Review, Fantasy 0

The Burning Bridge

The Ranger’s Apprentice, Book Two

by John Flanagan
performed by John Keating

Recorded Books, 2006. 7 compact discs. 8.5 hours.

Okay, I’m firmly committed to listening to these popular books by now. The book is rather self-contained, but I definitely don’t want to leave Will in the situation where he’s left at the end of this book. And you will do better reading this book if you’ve read the first one, which in many ways is introductory.

Now, I kind of expected the whole series to be like Harry Potter, and be a grand struggle against the evil Morgarath. But that struggle, which began in the first book, The Ruins of Gorlan, does come to a climax in this second book. So the future books will have different situations and villains.

Now I do have a peeve against the titles. In the first book, at about the sixth CD, they were tracking evil creatures. They said they were probably heading for one place, but that they might possibly try to ambush the trackers at the Ruins of Gorlan. Given the title, I wasn’t even slightly surprised by what happened.

In this book, at about the third CD, they discover a huge, strategic bridge, almost finished. The ropes supporting the bridge are coated with tar. It takes Will an entire CD to think of what to do about that bridge. But I, having read the title, was way, way ahead of him.

However, I didn’t foresee the consequences of that plan, I’ll give the author that. Though the Burning Bridge happened about exactly in the middle of the book (unlike the Ruins of Gorlan, which we saw at the end of its book), things really got interesting and suspenseful after that.

I also wasn’t crazy about the alternating scenes between what was going on with Will (the Ranger’s Apprentice) and what was happening in the rest of the kingdom. There was an entire minor mission with Halt and Alice that I guess was just to provide a little humor? Or to keep us guessing about where Will’s love interest will lie some day?

Still, it’s clear that John Flanagan wrote with the big picture in mind. This book is one part of a series, and he’s showing us a cast of characters in a kingdom we’re coming to care about. I definitely am going to continue on.

Oh, and I’m enjoying the audio version, in particular because of the accents. Now, I’m not sure why this fantasy world corresponds exactly to the British Isles and Europe, with accents that match, but it does make the books fun to listen to.

And I really do want to know what happens to Will next.

Buy from Amazon.com

Find this review on Sonderbooks at: www.sonderbooks.com/Childrens_Fiction/burning_bridge.html

Disclosure: I am an Amazon Affiliate, and will earn a small percentage if you order a book on Amazon after clicking through from my site.

Source: This review is based on a library book from the Fairfax County Public Library.

Disclaimer: I am a professional librarian, but I write the posts for my website and blogs entirely on my own time. The views expressed are solely my own, and in no way represent the official views of my employer or of any committee or group of which I am part.

Please use the comments if you’ve read the book and want to discuss spoilers!

Review of Geeks, Girls, and Secret Identities, by Mike Jung

Children's Fiction Review, Fantasy, Starred Review 0

Geeks, Girls, and Secret Identities

by Mike Jung

Arthur A. Levine Books (Scholastic), 2012. 305 pages.
Starred Review

A lot of parents would say it’s not productive to know everything last detail about a certain superhero. But for Vincent Wu, the superhero lives in their town and has been keeping their town crime-free and defending it against supervillains for twenty-six years. Unfortunately, his encyclopedic knowledge of Captain Stupendous isn’t appreciated. Only his two best friends are in the Captain Stupendous Fan Club (the real Fan Club) and the people in the Official Captain Stupendous Fan Club still pick on him.

But when something happens to Captain Stupendous and he’s replaced (think The Santa Clause) by a twelve-year-old girl, well Vincent Wu’s encyclopedic knowledge is suddenly very important. Because there’s a new supervillain coming against their town, and the new Captain Stupendous is going to need a lot of help to save the day.

I enjoyed this book tremendously. Yes, there are a whole lot of coincidences. Yes, it’s something of a comic book geek’s fantasy. But it’s definitely a fun fantasy, with lots of cleverness and silliness. And I do like that brawn alone and superpowers alone aren’t enough to save the day.

I like the way, in this world where superheroes are real, every kid in town has Stupendous Alerts on their cell phones.

Every cell phone in the place started ringing at once, which could only mean one thing. I dug my phone out of my pocket, and sure enough, a text from the Copperplate City alert system.

STUPENDOUS ALERT: GIANT ROBOT. 24TH & BYRNE.

“Stupendous Alert!” I yelled. Okay, a bunch of other kids yelled it too, but I yelled it first, even if nobody heard me.

“That’s right around the corner!” George said.

There was a crackly sound from the ceiling, then a voice.

“Attention, Spud’s customers, we are on Stupendous Alert. Please stay in your seats. DON’T GO OUTSIDE. Again, we are on Stupendous Alert. DO NOT GO OUTSIDE.”

“Let’s go outside!” one of the Official Fan Club guys shouted.

Who says a vast knowledge of superhero trivia isn’t an important skill? This book was the one I stayed in bed late on Thanksgiving morning to finish. And I got up smiling. Great fun!

arthuralevinebooks.com
scholastic.com

Buy from Amazon.com

Find this review on Sonderbooks at: www.sonderbooks.com/Childrens_Fiction/geeks_girls_and_secret_identities.html

Disclosure: I am an Amazon Affiliate, and will earn a small percentage if you order a book on Amazon after clicking through from my site.

Source: This review is based on an Advance Reader Copy I got at an ALA conference.

Disclaimer: I am a professional librarian, but I write the posts for my website and blogs entirely on my own time. The views expressed are solely my own, and in no way represent the official views of my employer or of any committee or group of which I am part.

Please use the comments if you’ve read the book and want to discuss spoilers!

Review of Blood Spirits, by Sherwood Smith

Adventure, Fantasy, Fiction Review, Paranormal, Starred Review 0

Blood Spirits

by Sherwood Smith

DAW Books, 2011. 488 pages.
Starred Review

It’s hard to talk about this book without saying too much about its predecessor. Yes, you definitely should read Coronets and Steel before you read Blood Spirits. When we left Kim, she had found out a world of information about her grandmother’s secret life. She’d been kidnapped more than once, she’d met long-lost family, and she’d gotten involved in political intrigue and fallen in love. She’d also discovered that she has the Sight, and she saw some truly strange things in the kingdom of Dobrenica.

But in the end, she decided not to get between the man she loves and his duty to his nation. She fled, expecting him to get married, and wondering if the traditional magic would happen and Dobrenica would disappear from the outside world.

Well, Dobrenica didn’t disappear. But Kim decided to get a teaching job and to try not to think about Dobrenica. But it doesn’t work, and then Kim has a strange vision of Ruli, her look-alike cousin, the woman who married the man she loves. Ruli is begging Kim for help. Kim decides to go to Dobrenica.

Her timing is bad. Ruli has just been found dead, and even Alec considers himself responsible for her death. Kim’s showing up then makes the case against him all the worse.

This story includes political intrigue, a murder mystery, and, yes, blood spirits threatening the kingdom. There’s more sword fighting (Kim is a skilled fencer.) and shifting alliances and even Kim’s grandmother faces her old love.

Here’s Kim talking to a Dobrenican girl and discovering she’s not the only one who sees strange things:

Tania refused to sit down, so I collapsed on the bed, as she said without preamble, “When I was little I talked to ghosts. Many ghosts. I see them all around, though most are silent and like fog. But my family, they thought I lied, to gain attention.”

I sat up again. “You talked to them?”

She brought her chin down in a single nod.

“But no one believed you?” I began to pull off my boots.

“No one but my sisters. Theresa because she loves the stories about ghosts. Anna because she knew I never lied.”…

“First, how do you talk to them, and second, what made you decide to tell me these things?”

“I do not know how I speak to them,” she said, her slender hands open as I reached for the wardrobe door. “It happened more when I was small. Rarely since. No one else could hear them. It was not always about things that made sense to me. As for why I’m telling you this, it is partly because of what you said when you came to the lens maker’s, but also because of this man.” She pointed at the wardrobe.

“What?” I jumped back as if I’d been electrocuted, leaving the wardrobe door ajar. “What man?”

She pointed. “He stands there, with a cigarette.”

Sherwood Smith is a master of the fantasy genre, and this book isn’t quite like any other. More swashbuckling romance. With vampires. And these ones definitely don’t sparkle.

Buy from Amazon.com

Find this review on Sonderbooks at: www.sonderbooks.com/Fiction/blood_spirits.html

Disclosure: I am an Amazon Affiliate, and will earn a small percentage if you order a book on Amazon after clicking through from my site.

Source: This review is based on a library book from the Fairfax County Public Library.

Disclaimer: I am a professional librarian, but I write the posts for my website and blogs entirely on my own time. The views expressed are solely my own, and in no way represent the official views of my employer or of any committee or group of which I am part.

Please use the comments if you’ve read the book and want to discuss spoilers!

Review of Froi of the Exiles, by Melina Marchetta

Adventure, Fantasy, Starred Review, Teen Fiction Review 0

Froi of the Exiles

by Melina Marchetta

Candlewick Press, 2012. 593 pages. First published in Australia in 2011.
Starred Review

Wow. This is an epic, detailed, and complicated world, and Melina Marchetta takes you on a journey through it.

Finnikin of the Rock does stand alone nicely. It didn’t necessarily need a sequel. But you really should read it before reading Froi of the Exiles, and there had better be another book coming, because the story is decidedly not finished in this book.

We met Froi as a scruffy thief in Finnikin of the Rock. In the three years since then, he’s been trained by the elite of Lumatere in many things, including the special skills of an assassin. Now they’re sending him into neighboring Charyn to get revenge on the invasion of Lumatere by killing the king of Charyn. He’s supposed to kill the king and get out. But things do not turn out to be so easy. And it’s not because of the difficulty of the task, but because of the people Froi meets along the way.

This book is richly detailed and finely textured. I’ve noticed that Melina Marchetta rarely introduces you to characters as someone likable. I’d almost go so far as to say that the more unflattering the description, the more important that character is going to be. The amazing part is that she pulls it off. You end up truly caring for these people, despite their apparent flaws. Here’s where Froi meets Quintana:

Beside their own balconette was another that belonged to the room next door. After a moment, the girl with the mass of awful hair stepped out onto it. She peered at Froi, almost within touching distance. Up close she was even stranger looking, and it was with an unabashed manner that she studied him now, and with great curiosity, her brow furrowed. A cleft on her chin was so pronounced, it was as if someone had spent their life pointing out her strangeness. Her hair was a filthy mess almost reaching her waist. It was strawlike in texture, and Froi imagined that if it were washed, it might be described as a darker shade of fair. But for now, it looked dirty, its color almost indescribable.

She squinted at his appraisal. Froi squinted back.

Gargarin appeared beside him and the girl disappeared.

“I’m presuming that was the princess,” Froi said. “She’s plain enough. What is it with all the twitching? Is she possessed by demons?”

It turns out that all of Charyn is cursed with the inability to bear or father Charyn, but Quintana is the key to breaking the curse. This is not a comfortable role.

Meanwhile, back in Lumatere, they are dealing with a band of Charynite refugees who are staying in a valley next to Lumatere. And the new rulers are still trying to rebuild the country. When Froi doesn’t come back, they have to make some choices. Meanwhile, Froi finds out surprising things about himself and his quest gets far more complicated.

Another hallmark of this series is that a lot of people lie. Even good people. Slowly, along with Froi, we get to figure out what is true and what is false and who Froi really is and whether Quintana can truly break the curse and what will they do next?

I love what Melina Marchetta says about the book on the back flap: “It explores nature versus nurture and blood bonds versus friendships, but ultimately it’s a love story between a whole lot of people who should have given up on each other long ago — yet still find it in themselves to hope again.”

The worst part of this book? It ends without finishing the story. I will very eagerly be waiting for the next installment.

candlewick.com

Buy from Amazon.com

Find this review on Sonderbooks at: www.sonderbooks.com/Teens/froi_of_the_exiles.html

Disclosure: I am an Amazon Affiliate, and will earn a small percentage if you order a book on Amazon after clicking through from my site.

Source: This review is based on a library book from the Fairfax County Public Library.

Disclaimer: I am a professional librarian, but I write the posts for my website and blogs entirely on my own time. The views expressed are solely my own, and in no way represent the official views of my employer or of any committee or group of which I am part.

Please use the comments if you’ve read the book and want to discuss spoilers!

Review of Silver Phoenix, by Cindy Pon

Fantasy, Teen Fiction Review 0

Silver Phoenix

by Cindy Pon

Greenwillow Books, 2009. 338 pages.

I’d been meaning to read this book for ages, and never quite got around to it until this summer, when I found out I might have a chance to meet Cindy Pon at ALA Annual Conference. Well, I did get the book read just before the conference, but I didn’t end up getting to meet Cindy Pon. However, I was happy to read Silver Phoenix and am looking forward to reading the sequel, which I own a copy of (having gotten it at another ALA conference).

Silver Phoenix is a fantasy novel refreshingly different from so many that I’ve read, since this time instead of coming from a western fairy-tale medieval sort of background, the story has a Chinese traditional setting. In the author’s acknowledgements in the back, she mentions doing research in a book, A Chinese Bestiary: Strange Creatures from the Guideways Through Mountains and Seas, edited and translated by Richard E. Strassberg. This made the book fascinating and different from any other fantasy novel I’ve read.

Ai Ling’s father is taking a mysterious journey to the Emperor’s Palace. Before he goes, he gives her a pendant.

“It was given to me by a monk, years ago. Before I met your mother.” He took the jade piece between his fingers. “I helped him transcribe a book of religious text in exchange for board at his temple.”

He ran a fingertip over the raised character, his face pensive. “Before I left, he gave me this. He told me to give it to my daughter, if I should ever leave her side for long.” A small smile touched at the corners of his mouth. “But when I said I had no daughter, he merely waved me away.”

When Ai Ling’s father doesn’t return, a vile but powerful merchant tells her mother that he was owed money and will only forgive the debt if Ai Ling becomes his additional wife. In order to escape this fate, Ai Ling sets off to the Palace to find her father. She knows something must have happened, or he would have returned.

On the way to the Palace, Ai Ling seems to attract demons. But her pendant protects her. She gains companions along the way and learns to use the pendant which ultimately helps her in a showdown with evil and some revelations about why these things have happened to her.

Now, there were a few too many coincidences in this book for my taste. Ai Ling blunders along, and eventually gets to where she needs to go. The people she meet end up being the right companions for her.

However — this is a good story and did keep me reading, and I liked the way the ending worked out. It made up for little things I didn’t like about getting there. The demons that attack her are fascinating in their variety. Cindy Pon put that bestiary to good use!

I did like it that everything wasn’t tied up nicely in the end. Besides that this way I can read on, that would have been just too much coincidence. There is more to be revealed, and I like that it didn’t all come out at once. I have a feeling that I’m going to appreciate this story more as I read on.

cindypon.com
harperteen.com

Buy from Amazon.com

Find this review on Sonderbooks at: www.sonderbooks.com/Teens/silver_phoenix.html

Disclosure: I am an Amazon Affiliate, and will earn a small percentage if you order a book on Amazon after clicking through from my site.

Source: This review is based on a library book from the Fairfax County Public Library.

Disclaimer: I am a professional librarian, but I write the posts for my website and blogs entirely on my own time. The views expressed are solely my own, and in no way represent the official views of my employer or of any committee or group of which I am part.

Please use the comments if you’ve read the book and want to discuss spoilers!

Review of Starry River of the Sky, by Grace Lin

Children's Fiction Review, Fairy Tale Variant, Fantasy, Starred Review 0

Starry River of the Sky

by Grace Lin

Little, Brown and Company, New York, 2012. 288 pages.
Starred Review

Grace Lin has surpassed herself! Her companion novel, Where the Mountain Meets the Moon, also wove Chinese fairy tales into the larger narrative, and it deservedly won a Newbery Honor. I think Starry River of the Sky is even better. You do not at all need to have read the earlier book to appreciate this one. A few characters appear in both, but each story is completely self-contained.

The first paragraph sets the stage, with the Moon missing, and Rendi stowing away in a cart.

Rendi was not sure how long the moon had been missing. He knew only that for weeks, the wind seemed to be whimpering as if the sky were suffering. At first, he had thought the moans were his own because his whole body ached from hiding in the merchant’s moving cart. However, it was when the cart had stopped for the evening, when the bumping and knocking had ended, that the groans began.

Rendi is caught stowing away, but the innkeeper at the Inn of Clear Sky lets him stay on as an errand boy. He doesn’t feel grateful, but he sees no way to move on. Then a beautiful woman comes to the inn. She talks to old, slow-witted Mr. Shan and she begins to tell stories to Rendi and Peiyi, the innkeeper’s daughter. But she won’t continue to share stories unless Rendi will tell a story himself.

Through the stories, and through events, we see Rendi begin to change. And problems are solved. But what is a boy to such overwhelming problems as a missing moon, parched and drying land, Peiyi’s missing brother, and Rendi’s own identity. Many people in this book are angry, and Grace Lin weaves a tale where we want them to find peace, and we come to believe they can do what it takes to put their anger aside.

Grace Lin is also an artist, so each chapter has a drawing at the start of each chapter, and there are gorgeous full color pictures every few chapters. The stories told within the chapters get their own font as well as small colored pictures on each side of the story’s name. The book is a delight to hold and look at.

Although this isn’t exactly a beginning chapter book, the language is simple and the concepts are all well within the grasp of an elementary age child. This would be a wonderful choice for reading to a classroom or reading to children at bedtime.

Buy from Amazon.com

Find this review on Sonderbooks at: www.sonderbooks.com/Childrens_Fiction/starry_river_of_the_sky.html

Disclosure: I am an Amazon Affiliate, and will earn a small percentage if you order a book on Amazon after clicking through from my site.

Source: This review is based on a book I purchased at KidLitCon and had signed by the author.

Disclaimer: I am a professional librarian, but I write the posts for my website and blogs entirely on my own time. The views expressed are solely my own, and in no way represent the official views of my employer or of any committee or group of which I am part.

Please use the comments if you’ve read the book and want to discuss spoilers!

Review of The Ruins of Gorlan, by John Flanagan

Adventure, Audiobooks, Children's Fiction Review, Fantasy 0

The Ruins of Gorlan

by John Flanagan
performed by John Keating

Recorded Books, 2006.

One of my co-workers told me she enjoyed listening to this series, and I’d meant to read it ever since it had been a Summer Reading Program selection at our library back in 2008. When it made Betsy Bird’s Top 100 Chapter Books List and I was also looking for my next audiobook to listen to, I finally tackled it.

Now, I found the plot a little predictable and a little stereotypical, but I still enjoyed it. And since the series stretches on and on, I am sure it will go beyond the coming-of-age story in this first volume.

Will has grown up in a castle as a ward of the lord of the castle. All he knows about his father was that he was a hero, and Will imagines him a mighty knight. All his life, he has dreamed of going to battle school.

But Will is too small for battle school. When the mysterious Ranger picks Will out as his apprentice, Will is less than thrilled. But then he learns skills that show him sometimes those with size and brute strength are not the most powerful.

Besides covering the beginning of Will’s training, this book takes us through his first involvement in a conflict with the evil that is building up to attack the kingdom. I can see why so many kids are avidly following this series. This very first one is still popular, but we also get people for looking for the newest volume, and every book along the way. I suspect I will become one of them.

Buy from Amazon.com

Find this review on Sonderbooks at: www.sonderbooks.com/Childrens_Fiction/ruins_of_gorlan.html

Disclosure: I am an Amazon Affiliate, and will earn a small percentage if you order a book on Amazon after clicking through from my site.

Source: This review is based on a library audiobook from the Fairfax County Public Library.

Disclaimer: I am a professional librarian, but I write the posts for my website and blogs entirely on my own time. The views expressed are solely my own, and in no way represent the official views of my employer or of any committee or group of which I am part.

Please use the comments if you’ve read the book and want to discuss spoilers!

Review of Vessel, by Sarah Beth Durst

Fantasy, Starred Review, Teen Fiction Review 0

Vessel

by Sarah Beth Durst

Margaret K. McElderry Books (Simon & Schuster), 2012. 424 pages.
Starred Review

This book has a striking beginning:

On the day she was to die, Liyana walked out of her family’s tent to see the dawn.

Liyana’s dreamwalk has shown that she is to be a vessel, a vessel for the goddess Bayla to come among her people, the Goat Clan, and restore their oases and keep them alive.

Liyana has kept her body ready for Bayla, and she’s ready to dance and let the goddess take her body and send her own soul to the Dreaming. She thinks she does everything right. She dances all night. But Bayla does not come.

The tribal elders decide Liyana must be unworthy. They must travel on and leave her behind. If somehow they are wrong, Bayla will find her body and join them.

So Liyana stays in the desert and tries to survive a sandstorm on her own. Then a young man walks to her through the sand. He claims to be Korbyn, the trickster god. He was summoned five nights ago, and has come to find her.

“Me? But . . .” All calmness fled, and her voice squeaked. “Your clan! Your clan needs you!”

“All the clans need me,” he said. “And I need you.”

She understood the words he was saying, but the order of them made no sense. “You left your clan to find me?”

“Deities are missing. Five in total. They were summoned from the Dreaming, but their souls never filled their clans’ vessels.”

Liyana felt as if she had been dropped back inside the sandstorm. “Bayla . . .”

“I believe their souls were stolen. And I intend for us to steal them back.”

So begins a quest, a quest to find all the other vessels and then find who stole the gods.

I confess, I read this book in one stretch on a Sunday afternoon. I think I might enjoyed it more if I had spread it out and treasured the details more. We’ve got many clans of desert people living beside a great empire. The desert has many fantastical dangers, such as sand wolves and sandworms. And every hundred years or so, the gods choose vessels and come from the Dreaming to visit their people.

I don’t think I was completely happy with the ending, but I’m not sure I could have figured out any other satisfying way to end it. The world is wonderfully built, and I think I should have lingered longer.

sarahbethdurst.com
TEEN.SimonandSchuster.com

Buy from Amazon.com

Find this review on Sonderbooks at: www.sonderbooks.com/Teens/vessel.html

Disclosure: I am an Amazon Affiliate, and will earn a small percentage if you order a book on Amazon after clicking through from my site.

Source: This review is based on a library book from the Fairfax County Public Library.

Disclaimer: I am a professional librarian, but I write the posts for my website and blogs entirely on my own time. The views expressed are solely my own, and in no way represent the official views of my employer or of any committee or group of which I am part.

Please use the comments if you’ve read the book and want to discuss spoilers!

Review of Grave Mercy, by Robin LaFevers

Fantasy, Historical, Paranormal, Romance, Starred Review, Teen Fiction Review 2

Grave Mercy

His Fair Assassin, Book I

by Robin LaFevers

Houghton Mifflin Books for Children, 2012. 509 pages.
Starred Review

Wow. This book reminded me of The Canterbury Papers, full of medieval palace intrigue, but this had supernatural powers thrown in.

The book is set in Brittany, beginning in 1485. Ismae has been told from birth that the scar she was born with, from the midwife’s poison failing, marks her as the daughter of Death himself, an ancient Breton god now called St. Mortain. When the man her father sold her to sees the scar, he is going to have her burned, but she is rescued by strangers and sent to the convent of St. Mortain.

At the convent, Ismae learns the special powers she has as the daughter of St. Mortain. She can see a mark on a person who is going to die. Poison does not harm her. She can see a person’s soul when it leaves his body. Also at the convent, they train her to be an assassin.

“If you choose to stay, you will be trained in His arts. You will learn more ways to kill a man than you imagined possible. We will train you in stealth and cunning and all manner of skills that will ensure no man is ever again a threat to you.”

Three years later, Ismae is ready for her first assignments. But now there is political trouble, and Brittany is in danger of being swallowed up by France. Ismae is sent to the court of the duchess herself, ordered to pose as the mistress of Duval, the duchess’s half-brother.

But at court, things don’t turn out as Ismae has been led to believe they will. Those she was told to be suspicious of seem kind and seem to have the Duchess’s best interests at heart. Those she is supposed to trust seem suspicious. What is right?

Meanwhile, there’s plenty of action and adventure. There are surprise attacks and deaths that Ismae had nothing to do with. And the duchess must marry soon, preferably to someone who can bring an army to her cause. Along the way, slowly and exquisitely, we see Ismae’s heart being won by a good man.

Here’s the situation as it’s laid out before Ismae leaves the convent:

Crunard spreads his hands. “Then you know it is true. The circling vultures grow bold. The regent of France has forbidden that Anne be crowned duchess. It is our enemies’ wish to make her France’s ward so that they may claim Brittany for their own. They also claim the right to determine who she will marry.”

Duval begins pacing. “Spies are everywhere. We can scarce keep track of them all. The French have set up a permanent entourage within our court, which has made some of the border nations uneasy.”

Crunard adds, “Not to mention that their presence makes it impossible to see Anne anointed as our duchess without their knowledge. But until we place that coronet upon her head before her people and the Church, we are vulnerable.”

I cannot help but feel sympathy for our poor duchess. “Surely there is some way out of this mess?”

I have addressed my question to the abbess, but it is Duval who answers. “I will forge one with my bare hands, if need be,” he says. “I vow that I will see her duchess, and I will see her safely wed. But I need information against our enemies if I am to accomplish this.”

The room falls so silent that I fear they will hear the pounding of my heart. Duval’s vow has moved me, and that he has made it on sacred ground proves he is either very brave or very foolish.

This is one book I was very happy to see called Book One. The story in this book does come to a satisfying conclusion, but I want to come back to this world. This book would be excellent if it only had the medieval intrigue and romance, but with the paranormal elements added in, there’s extra satisfaction seeing Ismae’s power far beyond what you’d normally expect of a woman in the fifteenth century.

robinlafevers.com
hmhbooks.com

Buy from Amazon.com

Find this review on Sonderbooks at: www.sonderbooks.com/Teens/grave_mercy.html

Disclosure: I am an Amazon Affiliate, and will earn a small percentage if you order a book on Amazon after clicking through from my site.

Source: This review is based on an Advance Reader Copy I got at an ALA conference and checked against a library book from the Fairfax County Public Library.

Disclaimer: I am a professional librarian, but I write the posts for my website and blogs entirely on my own time. The views expressed are solely my own, and in no way represent the official views of my employer or of any committee or group of which I am part.

Please use the comments if you’ve read the book and want to discuss spoilers!

Review of Finnikin of the Rock, by Melina Marchetta

Fantasy, Starred Review, Teen Fiction Review 0

Finnikin of the Rock

by Melina Marchetta

Candlewick Press, 2010. First published in Australia in 2008. 399 pages.
Starred Review

I didn’t read Finnikin of the Rock when it came out, though I had fully intended to. I loved Melina Marchetta’s earlier book, Looking for Alibrandi, and now she was writing fantasy, my favorite genre? Of course I had to read it! I’m not quite sure why I didn’t get around to it, but now that some of my fellow bloggers are excited about the sequel to Finnikin of the Rock, I decided I would have to remedy that situation.

Finnikin of the Rock is a complex, richly woven fantasy tale. And Melina Marchetta pulls this off. I usually prefer simpler, fairytale-like stories, which is one reason I tend to prefer young adult fantasy books over fantasy books written for adults. But again, Melina Marchetta writes in such a way that overcomes this prejudice.

The situation is complicated, and full of pain for the participants. Ten years ago, after a horrible conquest by the cousin of the king, the land of Lumaterre was cursed. No one could get into or out of Lumaterre.

As it says in the Prologue:

This is the story, as told to those not born to see such days, recorded in The Book of Lumaterre so they will never forget.

The story of those trapped inside the kingdom, never to be heard from again, and those who escaped but were forced to walk the land in a diaspora of misery.

Until ten years later, when Finnikin of Lumatere climbed another rock. . .

Finnikin is the son of the man who was the king’s general, who is now imprisoned. Finnikin was a friend of the children of the royal family, who were killed in the slaughter before the curse struck. Or at least most think they were killed. Rumor has it that Balthazar, the king’s son, escaped.

Now Finnikin, who travels with the king’s First Man, has heard that a novice in the shrine to Sagami claims to walk through the sleep of the people trapped inside Lumatere, and, more importantly, through the sleep of Balthazar, the heir. They collect her and travel with her, in hopes of finding Balthazar and breaking the curse.

Their journey has many twists and turns and many surprises. There are lies and double-crosses as well as surprising loyalties. They travel through many different dangerous lands before they can tackle the curse. And we learn more and more about the horrible things that have happened outside and inside Lumatere in the last ten years.

Finnikin of the Rock does stand alone well, but it also leaves the reader wanting more. How can they possibly hope to heal so many wrongs done? In some ways, I’m glad I waited to read this book, because I can start right in on Froi of the Exiles.

Although this is fantasy, there’s not a lot of magic floating around. There are two goddesses worshiped by the Lumaterans, Lagrami and Sagrami, aspects of one goddess. A priestess of Sagrami is the one who cursed the kingdom with a blood curse when she was burned at the stake. Now the novice, Evanjalin, claims a gift from the goddess is what enables her to walk the sleep.

But mostly, this separate world enables the author to talk about people without a homeland and how they are treated without encountering any prejudice as might happen if she used people from our world. The truths are universal, and the people are flawed in places but also shining brightly in places, just like people in our world today.

This is an epic tale with many nuances and food for thought. As I write this, I have begun Froi of the Exiles, and this is the sort of book where reading the next one increases your appreciation for the first. The groundwork has been laid well, when I didn’t even realize how much groundwork was being laid. I’m definitely glad I’m taking on this saga.

Buy from Amazon.com

Find this review on Sonderbooks at: www.sonderbooks.com/Teens/finnikin_of_the_rock.html

Disclosure: I am an Amazon Affiliate, and will earn a small percentage if you order a book on Amazon after clicking through from my site.

Source: This review is based on a library book from the Fairfax County Public Library.

Disclaimer: I am a professional librarian, but I write the posts for my website and blogs entirely on my own time. The views expressed are solely my own, and in no way represent the official views of my employer or of any committee or group of which I am part.

Please use the comments if you’ve read the book and want to discuss spoilers!