An odd, egg-shaped object, planted by aliens in the mesozoic swamp, is found about 80 million years later by Tycho Tithonis, an eleven-year-old digging in his garden. (Tycho's name, and those of his siblings Ludwig, Leonardo, and Tamara, reflect a deterministic bent on their parents' part that is not irrelevant to the questions raised later.) Immediately, the tyrannical Ludwig demands the object, but Tycho holds on stubbornly, and soon discovers that the "egg" has the power to transport him into the past or the future. At first, Tycho uses the egg to settle small scores with his three siblings, all of whom bully and berate him to an unnatural extent; but he then begins to make forays into the future for glimpses of his adult self. Gradually, Tycho realizes that there are several alternate futures, but in each one the adult Tycho, abusing the power of the egg, becomes more menacing and despicable. In the last visit, he's a crazed "slave" of the egg, controlling and torturing his family. The aghast young Tycho finally realizes that the object itself is behind all the grim developments, and the story ends in a breakneck chase through the eons, with young Tycho, determined to return the egg, pursued by his older self who wants to keep it. Sleator manipulates the family conflicts and their nightmare transformations expertly—building the ideas through the page-turning action, weaving in subtle variations on the dominant theme, and turning to his own nimble advantage those built-in paradoxes of the time-travel concept which often weaken similar stories.
Pub Date: April 30, 1981
ISBN: 0765352389
Page Count: 132
Publisher: Dutton
Review Posted Online: May 9, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 1981
A lackluster and sometimes disturbing mishmash of overused tropes.
The Plague has left a population divided between Elites and Ordinaries—those who have powers and those who don’t; now, an Ordinary teen fights for her life.
Paedyn Gray witnessed the king kill her father five years ago, and she’s been thieving and sleeping rough ever since, all while faking Psychic abilities. When she inadvertently saves the life of Prince Kai, she becomes embroiled in the Purging Trials, a competition to commemorate the sickness that killed most of the kingdom’s Ordinaries. Kai’s duties as the future Enforcer include eradicating any remaining Ordinaries, and these Trials are his chance to prove that he’s internalized his brutal training. But Kai can’t help but find Pae’s blue eyes, silver hair, and unabashed attitude enchanting. She likewise struggles to resist his stormy gray eyes, dark hair, and rakish behavior, even as they’re pitted against each other in the Trials and by the king himself. Scenes and concepts that are strongly reminiscent of the Hunger Games fall flat: They aren’t bolstered by the original’s heart or worldbuilding logic that would have justified a few extreme story elements. Illogical leaps and inconsistent characterizations abound, with lighthearted romantic interludes juxtaposed against genocide, child abuse, and sadism. These elements, which are not sufficiently addressed, combined with the use of ableist language, cannot be erased by any amount of romantic banter. Main characters are cued white; the supporting cast has some brown-skinned characters.
A lackluster and sometimes disturbing mishmash of overused tropes. (map) (Fantasy. 14-18)Pub Date: Nov. 7, 2023
ISBN: 9798987380406
Page Count: 538
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Sept. 9, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2023
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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