A successful ending to a brilliant trilogy about human hope and connection.
The conclusion to the Age of Darkness trilogy sees its protagonists facing their biggest challenge yet.
After Beru’s body is used to trap a fallen god, the Prophet Pallas uses her imprisoned sister, Ephyra, to ensure Beru’s cooperation and control over the god. Far away, Hassan plans a rescue mission to save Beru and defeat the god before he can break free and vanquish them. Jude stands by him, desperately hoping that Anton—the Last Prophet and the boy he has fallen in love with—is still alive. Meanwhile, Anton searches for a way to prevent the destruction of the world that doesn’t involve a sacrifice he and his friends are not willing to make. This little group, alongside their friends and allies, is all that stands in the way of complete devastation. This uplifting, character-driven volume takes the trilogy to new heights of adventure, tension, and conflict—then effectively wraps it all up with a satisfying bang. The protagonists, alongside their closest friends and romantic partners, are given fitting conclusions for their overarching storylines. Each plays an important role in saving the world from darkness while learning the meanings of choice, agency, and accountability within this story set in a diverse world that celebrates and affirms all kinds of love.
A successful ending to a brilliant trilogy about human hope and connection. (Fantasy. 14-adult)Pub Date: Sept. 21, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-250-21179-8
Page Count: 512
Publisher: Henry Holt
Review Posted Online: July 26, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2021
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
There’s not much plot here, but readers will relish the opportunity to climb inside Autumn’s head.
The finely drawn characters capture readers’ attention in this debut.
Autumn and Phineas, nicknamed Finny, were born a week apart; their mothers are still best friends. Growing up, Autumn and Finny were like peas in a pod despite their differences: Autumn is “quirky and odd,” while Finny is “sweet and shy and everyone like[s] him.” But in eighth grade, Autumn and Finny stop being friends due to an unexpected kiss. They drift apart and find new friends, but their friendship keeps asserting itself at parties, shared holiday gatherings and random encounters. In the summer after graduation, Autumn and Finny reconnect and are finally ready to be more than friends. But on August 8, everything changes, and Autumn has to rely on all her strength to move on. Autumn’s coming-of-age is sensitively chronicled, with a wide range of experiences and events shaping her character. Even secondary characters are well-rounded, with their own histories and motivations.
There’s not much plot here, but readers will relish the opportunity to climb inside Autumn’s head. (Fiction. 14 & up)Pub Date: April 1, 2013
ISBN: 978-1-4022-7782-5
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Sourcebooks Fire
Review Posted Online: Feb. 12, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2013
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
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
SEEN & HEARD
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