Relative inaction and deus ex machina solutions mark this installment as a typical middle volume; here’s hoping the...
The evil spirit Narkazan, supposedly vanquished in Atlantis Rising (2013), is back.
Reunited with his parents but bitter at their earlier abandonment of him, immortal hero Promi doesn’t heed his father’s warning that his trips to Atlantis to visit the beautiful Atlanta are damaging the veil that keeps the mortal world safe. Narkazan sends dreams to a mortal, Reocoles, who begins an industrial revolution in Atlantis after Promi saves his ship from disaster. These rapid-fire industrial advancements, engineered by Reocoles and his fellow Greek explorers, threaten environmental ruin in short order. Barron’s eco-friendly message is laudable but so didactic the book suffers. Readers may wonder why magical sea creature Kermi, sent to warn Promi not to save the ship, decides not to deliver his urgent message, for instance. As in the series opener, the characters’ dialogue is often stilted, and those who speak in dialect come across as terribly clichéd. Narkazan’s lack of empathy—and sometimes common sense—makes him unbelievable, and the lesser, mustache-twirling (in one case, literally) bad guys’ main purpose seems to be to fulfill archetypes. The ethnic targeting of the Greeks as eco-villains is just one more problematic element.
Relative inaction and deus ex machina solutions mark this installment as a typical middle volume; here’s hoping the conclusion makes up for at least some of the failings of the first two books. (Fantasy. 10-14)Pub Date: May 5, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-399-16804-8
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Philomel
Review Posted Online: March 2, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2015
Is this the end? Well, no…the series will stagger on through at least one more scheduled sequel.
Sure signs that the creative wells are running dry at last, the Captain’s ninth, overstuffed outing both recycles a villain (see Book 4) and offers trendy anti-bullying wish fulfillment.
Not that there aren’t pranks and envelope-pushing quips aplenty. To start, in an alternate ending to the previous episode, Principal Krupp ends up in prison (“…a lot like being a student at Jerome Horwitz Elementary School, except that the prison had better funding”). There, he witnesses fellow inmate Tippy Tinkletrousers (aka Professor Poopypants) escape in a giant Robo-Suit (later reduced to time-traveling trousers). The villain sets off after George and Harold, who are in juvie (“not much different from our old school…except that they have library books here.”). Cut to five years previous, in a prequel to the whole series. George and Harold link up in kindergarten to reduce a quartet of vicious bullies to giggling insanity with a relentless series of pranks involving shaving cream, spiders, effeminate spoof text messages and friendship bracelets. Pilkey tucks both topical jokes and bathroom humor into the cartoon art, and ups the narrative’s lexical ante with terms like “pharmaceuticals” and “theatrical flair.” Unfortunately, the bullies’ sad fates force Krupp to resign, so he’s not around to save the Earth from being destroyed later on by Talking Toilets and other invaders…
Is this the end? Well, no…the series will stagger on through at least one more scheduled sequel. (Fantasy. 10-12)Pub Date: Aug. 28, 2012
ISBN: 978-0-545-17534-0
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: June 19, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2012
Rich and strange (and kitted out with an eye-catching cover), but stronger in the set pieces than the internal logic.
Chainani works an elaborate sea change akin to Gregory Maguire’s Wicked (1995), though he leaves the waters muddied.
Every four years, two children, one regarded as particularly nice and the other particularly nasty, are snatched from the village of Gavaldon by the shadowy School Master to attend the divided titular school. Those who survive to graduate become major or minor characters in fairy tales. When it happens to sweet, Disney princess–like Sophie and her friend Agatha, plain of features, sour of disposition and low of self-esteem, they are both horrified to discover that they’ve been dropped not where they expect but at Evil and at Good respectively. Gradually—too gradually, as the author strings out hundreds of pages of Hogwarts-style pranks, classroom mishaps and competitions both academic and romantic—it becomes clear that the placement wasn’t a mistake at all. Growing into their true natures amid revelations and marked physical changes, the two spark escalating rivalry between the wings of the school. This leads up to a vicious climactic fight that sees Good and Evil repeatedly switching sides. At this point, readers are likely to feel suddenly left behind, as, thanks to summary deus ex machina resolutions, everything turns out swell(ish).
Rich and strange (and kitted out with an eye-catching cover), but stronger in the set pieces than the internal logic. (Fantasy. 11-13)Pub Date: May 14, 2013
ISBN: 978-0-06-210489-2
Page Count: 496
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Feb. 12, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2013
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