Robbie F

• Rated 5 stars

“What if you grew up wishing that you could really go through the wardrobe to the perfect world of Narnia and stay there forever, and then you found out that you could? Wouldn't that just make you insanely happy? Well, don't be so sure. Quentin Coldwater, this book's hero (in a a loose sense of the word) believes the elusive secret to happiness lies in such a world, the magical world of Fillory depicted in a series of famous children's books. But when an unexpected twist in his pursuit of college entrance exams leads him to a real school of magic in upstate New York—a sort of post-secondary Hogwarts, if you will—he brings his happiness with him, right into the very fantasy world he used to dream of.

Unlike most of his classmates, Quentin doesn't seem to have a magical specialty, only a generally strong talent. Nevertheless he gets moved to the head of his class (promoted to the next year up, in fact), and grouped with the elite students of the Physical discipline (which blends, like, magic and physics). He experiences the pressure of competitive exams, the horror of a classroom lecture gone hideously wrong, the marvels of being transformed into a goose, the rigors of a semester in Antarctica (a.k.a. "Brakebills South"), the diversion of a game called Welters (which is almost, but not quite, entirely unlike Quidditch), the joys and disappointments of first love, and a graduation ritual absolutely guaranteed to surprise you. And then, all too soon, he is turned loose on the world, a fully qualified magician...

...And remains as unhappy as ever. He has lots of reasons for it. His family isn't particularly warm and fuzzy. His high school pals did not live up to his hopes for them. He is dissatisfied with his career prospects, and even his love affair with the brilliant Alice (who is like Hermione Granger might have been, had she been born to an all-magical family). He spends most of his time wasted on drugs and alcohol. And then... and then, out of nowhere, one of his former classmate shows up, claiming to have discovered the way to Fillory. For real.

Fillory turns out not to be the happy, morally instructive place the books depicted. Things have deteriorated. The country needs human kings and queens again, to set right all that has gone wrong. But are Quentin and his friends the right humans for the job? As they fight their way through hordes of Fillorians—giant, talking animals and half-human creatures who seem fanatically opposed to their quest—the Brakebills alumni cope with Fillory's ugly, violent reality in different ways, ranging from a rampage of deadly magic to being sickened by what they must do, to falling apart entirely. In the unspeakably awful disaster that awaits them at the end of their quest, Quentin—the who wanted this more than anybody—achieves unheard-of levels of unhappiness.

I won't tell you more about what happens. It would be unforgivable to cheat you of the opportunity to experience this emotionally gripping adventure, probing the very boundaries of fantasy as such, except to say that Quentin returns alone to the mundane world, scarred by a terrible loss and nearly fatal wounds... and that, even at the lowest conceivable ebb to which his quest for happiness arrives near the end of this book, the story is not over. And I think we can expect still more mythopoeic marvels from Lev Grossman, crusading book reviewer at Time magazine by day and novelist by night. Besides this series, Grossman has also written a science fiction novel titled Warp, an antiquarian thriller called Codex, and the recent sequel to this book, titled The Magician King.”

Robbie F wrote this review Sunday, April 15, 2012. ( reply | permalink )

• Rated 5 stars

“When we last visited the Dresden Files, wizard-detective Harry Dresden had recently been maimed by an overflow of fire magic, adopted by the Dalai Lama of demon-fighting dogs, and staggered by the discovery that white-court vampire Thomas is his half-brother.

A year or two later, this seventh novel in the series finds Harry rooming with Thomas while the latter struggles to overcome his dependency on the life force of fertile women (please, don't ask) and house-sitting for his cop friend Murphy while she takes a romantic vacation in Hawaii. Then a red-court vampire named Mavra threatens to destroy Murphy's career unless Dresden brings her a grimoire by a notorious necromancer.

The book is going to be hard to get hold of, what with Halloween coming up and a reunion of the late necromancer's disciples converging on Chicago with plains to raise all kinds of hell. Whichever one of Kemmler's disciples succeeds in cooking the recipe in The Word of Kemmler has a chance to become the next god, and a lot of people are going to suffer in the process. Harry's considerable powers are stretched to their limit and beyond as not one, not two, but three demonic duos come at him with battle-magic galore.

Besides this, Harry has to protect an innocent mortal who has been targeted for all kinds of badness, resist the temptation of a demon from hell who has taken up residence in his subconscious, and join forces with—rather, let's just say "join"—the wizardly Wardens who have made his life a pain until now, thanks to their side's massive losses in an ongoing war with the vampires which is, ultimately, Dresden's fault.

And so Harry gets a tantalizing touch of romance, an extra helping of violent action, a test of his ability to make snap decisions, and a wild ride on the back of a tyrannosaur(!), all to prevent the Apocalypse from coming early in Chicagoland. Gumshoeing the dead never looked like a livelier beat. You won't find a series that packs in more hardboiled sleuthing, hardcore action, magic, humor, and sex appeal, page for page. And the series continues with Proven Guilty.”

Robbie F wrote this review Sunday, April 15, 2012. ( reply | permalink )

• Rated 5 stars

“Book Four in the "Attolia" series focuses on Sophos, the prince of Sounis and sometime mage's apprentice introduced in the earlier books. Now, in as painful and dangerous a way as you can imagine, he becomes the king of Sounis. How a sweet-natured bookworm with a distinct lack of military skills can gather the strength to claim this throne, and at the same time to save his country from conquest by the ever-encroaching Medean empire, is the matter of this entire book.

With the skill to be expected of the author of the previous three books in this series, Megan Whalen Turner brings to life not only the manners and intrigues of courtly life in her dangerous alternate-history version of the ancient world, but the movements within the heart of the sensitive yet courageous youth at the center of the story.

Through Sophos, or rather Sounis as he soon becomes named, we come to see Eugenides (hero of the earlier books in the series) in a new light: as a leader of Machiavellian sublety. At times, Gen comes across as coldly ruthless, especially as he forces his sometime friend to submit to a strange alliance on which the fate of three small kingdoms may depend.

Meanwhile, we are touched by the delicate, hesitant romance between two sovereigns whose physical ugliness—in Sounis' case, recently acquired—conceals inner beauty. And we are left, once again, to wonder how long we will have to wait until Megan Whalen Turner brightens our world with another one of her delightful books.”

Robbie F wrote this review Saturday, April 14, 2012. ( reply | permalink )

• Rated 4 stars

“By the beginning of this sequel to Cryptid Hunters, ex-twins Marty and Grace have found out that they're not even siblings. In fact, they are cousins—Marty the son of an adventure-journalist couple still missing after a plane crash in the Amazon jungle, Grace the daughter of cryptid hunter Travis Wolfe, who is now their guardian. Grace's father is the brother of Marty's mother; her mother, meanwhile, was the daughter of celebrity philanthropist and private monster Noah Blackwood, whose worldwide chain of wildlife parks and highly publicized voyages of discovery are only a front for a fiendish compulsion to capture, kill, and gloat over the trophies of the same cryptids Travis seeks to discover and protect.

What are cryptids? Well, if you had done your homework and read Cryptid Hunters, you would know that they are rare creatures unknown to science, often recognized only as tribal myths and quaint legends. Creatures such as the Abominable Snowman, the Loch Ness monster, and the Kraken. Currently Wolfe and Blackwood are in a race to capture the first live specimen of a giant squid from the deepest, darkest trenches of the Pacific Ocean. But even higher on the agenda is for Wolfe to protect, and for Blackwood to capture, the baby dinosaurs whose eggs Wolfe found in the Congolese jungle in the previous adventure. Hatched aboard the good ship Coelacanth, the last two offspring of the Mokèlé-mbèmbé (a.k.a. Tyrannosaurus rex) don't do much except eat, poop, and blow the minds of the few people who know they exist. Still, Blackwood and his henchman Butch McCall are ready to kill any number of people, including children, to get them.

Blackwood also intends to "liberate" his granddaughter Grace from Wolfe's protection. And in that pursuit he has one extra advantage: the fact that Grace is so confused about who she really is. But the Blackwood-McCall conspiracy has to go up against the high-tech resourcefulness of Wolfe's partner Ted Bronson, the no-nonsense defense skills of their security chief, and the ever-unpredictable wild card of Marty, who has a knack for making quick decisions that are equally likely to get him into as out of trouble. But then there are surprises on both sides: a traitor within the trusted inner circle... a too-smart chimp on a drug-induced rampage... a boatload of pirates who are as clueless about their true role as the people they are about to attack... an experimental vessel that brings reinforcements from where it is least expected—from below...

There will have to be a sequel to this book, but I don't know what or when. On the other hand, I hear tell that a character who briefly pass through this story is the star of another series of books by Roland Smith. For more on the Lansa father-son safari team, look for Jaguar and The Last Lobo. Other titles by this author include The Captain's Dog, Elephant Run, Jack's Run, Peak, Sasquatch, and Zach's Lie, plus mostly outdoors-themed non-fiction books and an upcoming installment in the 39 Clues series.”

Robbie F wrote this review Saturday, April 14, 2012. ( reply | permalink )

1 of 1 members found this review helpful.

• Rated 4 stars

“Meet Marty and Grace O'Hara, thirteen-year-old twins who are amazingly close, considering how totally unlike they are. One way they like to put it is that Marty is a foot taller, and Grace is a foot smarter. The fearless brother, blessed with talents for art, cooking, and trouble, is fiercely protective of the genius sister, even though both of them have spent most of their lives in the safety of an exclusive Swiss boarding school while their parents, a writer-photographer team who make journalism look like an extreme sport, travel the world in search of danger and adventure.

All that changes when their parents' plane goes down in the Amazon jungle. Even though no bodies have been found, and the kids don't know whether they're orphans or not, they are pulled out of school by a mysterious uncle they have never heard of. Travis Wolfe, a bear-like man who owns his own island off the coast of Washington State, likes to keep a low profile so that he and his high-tech partner Ted Bronson can follow their true calling—protecting the earth's last big-game creatures unknown to science—without their discoveries being scooped by a phony preservationist, and genuine psychopath, named Dr. Noah Blackwood.

Learning all this is sort of like finding out that a one-man combination of Jacques Cousteau, Marlon Perkins, and Jane Goodall is actually a gangster who lines the walls of his inner sanctum with the stuffed heads of the last members of extinct species. But that's only the beginning of the learning curve for Marty and Grace. Suddenly they are supposed to believe that creatures like Bigfoot and the Loch Ness monster really exist. Scarcely have they arrived on Uncle Wolfe's secret island when they are whisked off again as Wolfe's team races to find the last Mokèlé-mbèmbé—that's Tyrannosaurus rex to you—before Blackwood's team of cryptid-hunting thugs, led by the pictorially named Butch McCall. The kids aren't supposed to get involved in the hunt for Mokèlé-mbèmbé, but after they free-fall out of an airplane over the Congolese jungle, they don't have much choice.

After that, their adventure is only a simple matter of surviving in one of the world's last completely untamed wild places, staying out of the clutches of McCall and his goons, finding a secret safehouse, and getting in touch with a man of the forest who can only be seen when he wants to be seen. Oh yes, and discovering the lair of the Mokèlé-mbèmbé. Surprisingly, considering that she has always been so easily frightened, Grace takes all this in stride... as if she's been there before... as if she is not, in fact, Marty's twin sister, but a child whose lineage poses a danger even greater than the creature that killed her real mother.

Created by an author who specializes in wildlife stories for young readers, the O'Hara twins are great fun. Their vivid personalities, and especially Marty's sense of humor and mischief, raise this book above the common-or-garden adventure-thriller for middle-school and junior-high-age readers. I bought this book so that I could finally with good conscience read its sequel Tentacles, which I'd had on my bookshelf for way too long. You, meanwhile, might come at it from the other direction and find that the thrills, laughs, and creepy foreshadowings of this book lure you irresistably to the sequel.”

Robbie F wrote this review Saturday, April 14, 2012. ( reply | permalink )

• Rated 5 stars

“In this sequel to Sixty-One Nails, Niall Petersen is still training to be a Warder to the Council of the Feyre when a personal blow forces an early launch to his career as a sort of supernatural cop. While fellow faerie Blackbird carries his child, drained of her magical powers by the pregnancy, Niall and his ex-wife Katherine are crushed by the death of their teenage daughter Alex. What's even worse is to find out that Alex is actually alive, possessed of dangerous powers, and being held somewhere by humans who will kill her the instant they suspect that her father is trying to rescue her, and whose plans for her are part of an inconceivably evil experiment in biological warfare.

Niall, meanwhile, has been packed away to a seaside village, where it is hoped his first case as a faerie sleuth will keep his mind off Alex, the diplomatic talks between the Council and his own estranged Seventh Court, and the danger Blackbird and his unborn child may be in when those mortal enemies of all who have mixed feyre and human blood come a-calling. At first it seems the case of five missing girls may be quickly explained as a series of unconnected runaways. But as Niall learns new uses of his power, he comes to suspect that two young lives have been taken, and that it has something to do with an otherworldly being that lurks behind the quaint, dying town.

To solve this mystery, save the next life that may be sacrificed, and get his daughter back, Niall must accept help offered by one of his own kind of feyre, in spite of the terrifyingly dubious motives behind the offer. And whether he can live with what he finds in the bowels of the secret government facility to which his daughter has been taken... that's a question that remains to be answered, even after the explosive and fiery bloodbath at the climax of this book.

If you like your magic served with the grit and action of a crime novel, the creepy darkness of a horror novel, the subtle intrigues of a spy novel, and an urban fantasy's juxtaposition of modern settings with creatures out of medieval folklore, shop no further. This series has something for fans of the Dresden Files, the blooming genre of London-under-London fantasies, and many other adult thrillers with a tint of the supernatural. It is a worthy sequel to Sixty-One Nails. And look out as Book 3 of "The Courts of the Feyre," titled Strangeness and Charm, materializes in 2012.”

Robbie F wrote this review Saturday, April 14, 2012. ( reply | permalink )

• Rated 5 stars

“They've landed. And they've taken off again. And now an eighth-grader named Gratuity Tucci ("Tip" to her friends) has been given a writing assignment about it. The winning essay on "The True Meaning of Smekday" will be placed in a 100-year time capsule. This book is, at least to start with, Tip's entry in the contest. By the end, however, it has become a very private memoir of how one girl joined forces with a many-limbed alien to save her family, and her world, from a menace from outer space.

With her tough mind, tender heart, and sharp wit, Tip is an enjoyable character and a belly-laugh-on-every-page narrator. The humorous stakes are raised by the fact that, writing for a classroom assignment, she has to watch her language. For example, in an early draft of her winning essay, Tip writes: "I nearly puked. Can I say that in a school paper? That I puked? Because when I said 'nearly,' what I really meant was 'repeatedly.'"

According to Tip's memoir, her mother was kidnapped by aliens in 2013. At least, so her mother said. Tip thought her mom might have gone a little crazy, but she changed her mind when she actually saw the aliens kidnap her again. The second abduction happened at the same time that the Boov - little tech-savvy people with eight limbs and a bubble-based language - conquered our planet in a bloodless coup and started herding everyone in the United States into Florida.

Tip decides to make a road trip of it, rather than fly the unfriendly skies with everyone else. By the time she reaches Florida, and finds that the United State of America has been relocated to Arizona, Tip and her cat Pig have been joined by a Boov named J.Lo, who for reasons of his own is on the run from his people. The first parts of Tip's essay read like a parable about imperialist whitey herding indigenous peoples onto reservations, reneging on treaties, changing the names of places and dates (such as changing Christmas into Smekday), and generally assuming their own superiority over the cultures they (we) have trampled on. The similitude cuts to the quick, right up to the point where a Native American character points out that the Boov are behaving no differently than the white man before them.

But then the stakes change. Another alien threat, even more disastrous than the Boov, arrives on the scene. Something even weirder and nastier is in store for the people of Earth, unless one girl, one Boov, and one cat (more or less) can put a stop to it. Though history doesn't remember it that way. Whatever history may remember, the time capsule will know the real story. And, privileged with an early peek at it, so will you. It is a peek you will enjoy, decorated with illustrations of polaroid photos, excerpts from a graphic novel depicting the history of the Boov, and (at the risk of spoiling the climax) over four solid pages of the word "meow" repeated over and over.

Adam Rex is also the author of teen novels Fat Vampire: A Never Coming of Age Story and the just-released Cold Cereal, which is supposed to be the first book in a trilogy. He has also written several appealing picture-books for even younger readers, including Frankenstein Makes a Sandwich.”

Robbie F wrote this review Saturday, April 14, 2012. ( reply | permalink )

• Rated 5 stars

“Forgive me if I borrow time from this book review to indulge in my favorite passtime: whining. I had wanted to borrow an audiobook version of this classic novel from the County Library, but when a copy finally became available, I found out the first disk wouldn't play in my car's CD player. The reason was that the publisher very helpfully added a bonus track of CD-ROM data that could only be opened by a computer, and which made machines designed to play only audio CDs unable to read the disk. My friendly librarian first suggested that I listen to the book on my home computer, but when I told him that the whole point of borrowing an audio book was so that I could read while driving my car, he went the extra mile and ordered another CD-book edition for the library's holdings. I therefore got to be the first library patron in the St. Louis metropolitan area to listen to Michael Page's spirited rendering of this medievalist romance, penned in 1820 by the author of such swashbucklers as Rob Roy and The Bride of Lammermoor, which inspired an opera by Donizetti.

Scott, working often under a pseudonym because at that time there was a stigma attached to writing prose fiction, was a prolific writer who helped create the genre of historical novel, and also made a certain pride in Scottish nationality acceptable to English readers for the first time. In fact, it might even be said that Scott invented much of what is now considered traditional Scots-Gaelic culture, although he himself was a lowlander. And although his fiction would be criticized for its plot-heavy, character-light writing style, many of his books continue to provide entertainment and enchantment to this day. Owing to their slight literary merit—at least when judged against such deeply penetrating character studies as the works of Trollope, Hardy, Austen, and the Brontë sisters—they may even be regarded as pioneering works in children's fiction.

And it is true that they appeal to the imagination of children who read books, much as action-packed movies appeal to younger audiences. These are stories that have been, and will continue to be, imitated in the make-believe play of all boys and girls for whom chivalric duels, castle sieges, and forest-dwelling outlaws are a source of inspiration. But it isn't only children, or authors who write for children, who have been inspired by Scott, and by this work in particular. Consider Howard Pyle, Roger Lancelyn Green, and other authors whose compilations of Arthurian legends and Robin Hood tales, as well as original stories, owe a debt to such models as Scott's Ivanhoe. I have even seen signs of our culture's debt to Scott outside literature, including a street named Ivanhoe not far from where I live.

For all that, Ivanhoe himself—a knight in the time of King Richard the Lion-Heart—is not actually all that important a character in the book to which he gives his name. After acquitting himself heroically at a tournament given by Prince John in the earlier part of this novel, he spends most of the remainder recovering from his wounds while events swirl around him. By the final pages he is just sufficiently recovered to mount a horse and face his opponent in a climactic duel which, fortunately for him, ends without a blow being struck. In between there is much ado about the last holdouts for Saxon independence accepting the reality and permanence of the Norman conquest, and about Prince John accepting the return of his brother Richard's all-too-brief reign over England after the glory and folly of the crusades.

The prince tries to pull together an army to resist Richard's return, and the Saxons pull together a fighting body (partly made up of Robin Hood's merry men) to resist the prince's allies, and the Castle of Torquilstone sees a glorious siege, and a self-sacrificing jester pulls off a feat of folly that turns the tide, and the noble Wilfred rides to the defense of a lovely Jewess before she can be burnt by the Templars for sorcery, and suddenly between the covers of one book the English-speaking world discovers Robin Hood as we know him, develops a conscience regarding the treatment of the Jews, coins the word "freelance," and begins to expect a more realistic depiction of social conditions in its historical fiction, romance though it may be. And though the book's characters may be accused of being one-dimensional, they nevertheless have great charm, and some (such as Gurth and Wamba) actually cry out to be loved.

This is, in fact, such a successful piece of entertainment that I am resolved to read more of Scott's books. I refuse to feel guilty about pursuing what literary critics regard as lighter entertainment, suitable for children. Now and then, to be sure, I will take a dose of my medicine in the form of some novel of high literary merit. But you'll have to forgive me if, when I need to pass the dull hours of highway between home and office each day, I err on the side of enjoying myself. ”

Robbie F wrote this review Saturday, April 14, 2012. ( reply | permalink )

1 of 1 members found this review helpful.

• Rated 5 stars

“Until she wrote this book, Deborah Harkness was known for her scholarly writings on the history of science and medicine, particularly emphasizing the role of alchemy and magic in the medieval-era development of what we now know as science. Diana Bishop, the main character in A Discovery of Witches, must therefore have been based on Harkness herself. One wonders whether Diana's vampire friend Matthew (who, unlike Dracula, does very much drink wine) has anything to do with Harkness's blog Good Wine Under $20. For all you know, this might be a true story. And that would be OK, because even among love stories in which the male protagonist is a vampire, it's a much better story than Twilight.

One of the reasons for that lies in the character of Diana herself. She's not just a petulant teenaged mortal who decides she can't live without her bloodsucking boyfriend, and so lies down to die until he comes back to her. She's a natural-born witch who has been trying, albeit without 100% success, to live without magic since her parents were viciously murdered when she was a young girl. Diana divides her time between a study of ancient grimoires in Oxford's Bodleian Library and an exercise regimen designed to burn excess energy so that magic doesn't constantly fizz out of her. One day a book of alchemy finds its way into her hands, one long thought to have been lost forever. Suddenly the eyes of every witch, vampire, and demon in the neighborhood are on her.

Mind you, in Diana's world these supernatural beings are genetic offshoots of the human race. You might even know a few of them. Demons, for example, are many of the great geniuses and artistic prodigies who have at least a thin streak of madness in their personality. Vampires often use their long lifespans to acquire multiple degrees and advanced expertise in several disciplines, such as genetics, medicine, architecture, etc. Witches, like Diana's aunt and her girlfriend, tend to major in "witchcraft" (the herbs and potions kind of thing) and perhaps, at most, one or two really "magical" talents, such as flying or firestarting. But after Diana's encounter with the mysterious medieval codex that supposedly holds the secrets of all three types of creature, it gradually becomes clear that she has more than her share of talents; that she may be, in fact, crucial to the survival or extinction of all vampires, demons, and witches. And that puts her in terrible danger.

Ironically, it is a vampire named Matthew who turns out to be Diana's best hope of survival. In spite of their peoples' mutual distrust, they quickly form a bond that grows into love. But they have a lot to learn about each other, and they have a lot of dangers to go through, as such a bond between a vampire and a witch is forbidden by the Congregation that polices inter-creature relations worldwide. Some representatives of which, vampire and witch alike, will not balk even at unspeakable acts of torture and mutilation to get what they want out of Diana.

Before this story ends, Diana and Matthew form another Congregation around themselves, including equal numbers of all three branches of the creature family tree. Not one but two new lives forbidden by the interspecies accord are developing. An ancient chivalric order, begun by vampires in the era of the Christian crusades, has been reactivated. And a new story involving time travel promises to carry the "All Souls Trilogy" into even more strange, wonderful, and exciting directions. Book 2, Shadow of Night, comes out in 2012. And though the most obvious comparison based on this book will be to the Twlight series, be assured that this is a much more mature, satisfying, and intelligent adventure. I recommend the audiobook read by Jennifer Ikeda, who has a most expressive and versatile voice—not to mention a sexy one!”

Robbie F wrote this review Saturday, April 14, 2012. ( reply | permalink )

• Rated 4 stars

“This first installment in a remarkable new fantasy series acquaints us with a unique, and never fully explained, world in which futurism and archaism are strangely blended. It is a world in which human technology has advanced somewhat beyond where it is today, in which the turbulence of human progress has culminated in something called "the Years of Rage," whose violence left scars even on the moon. At that point a great leader, who seems to have been as mad as he was wise, enforced something called Protocol on everybody, returning mankind to a pretechnological, feudal era and freezing time there. While vestiges of advanced technology continue to operate in secret, everyone by law is required to keep at least the appearance of living in the Middle Ages. Science has reverted to alchemy, medicine to herblore and midwifery, and politics to the courtly intrigues surrounding the king or queen.

Next in line to be the queen is a spirited girl named Claudia, whose icy, remote father is the Warden of Incarceron. What, didn't I mention Incarceron? That's only the prison where, hundreds of years ago, all the criminal types were sent to work out their aggression in an environment governed by an all-seeing, all-powerful, artificial intelligence. Incarceron, not to put too fine a point on it, is alive. And although nobody knows what's been going on inside it for all these years, or even where it is, it is widely believed that the perfect society will have evolved within its walls by now. Actually, what dwells within Incarceron is a man-made hell of vicious gangs, superstitious villagers, bizarre landscapes, and dangerous creatures, including some animals and people who are part organic, part machine. This is only possible because Incarceron doesn't let anything go to waste. Whenever someone dies, the prison's mechanical beetles and rats carry it off & reprocess it into the next "cell-born" being who will come from, and return to, the prison that gives it life.

Among the prisoners is a young man named Finn who believes he came from outside, though everyone else laughs this off as an impossibility. Finn doesn't remember much about his life before Incarceron, but besides a few tantalizing memories of his childhood, he also has fits in which he sees visions of the future, or communicates with Sapphique, the legendary hero who is supposed to have Escaped from the prison. Escape, capital E, is a holy concept to people like Finn and his handful of friends, who together set out to follow Sapphique's footsteps, aided by a key marked with the same strange symbol as the birthmark on Finn's arm.

Claudia, meanwhile, has come into possession of a similar key, enabling the two of them to communicate with each other. Claudia thinks she knows who Finn was before he went into Incarceron, and if she's right, her marriage to the prince of the realm is only part of an evil conspiracy between her father and the Queen. But there are other conspiracies afoot, which also demand Claudia's cooperation. All she wants is to get Finn out of Incarceron and, perhaps, escape from the plans and counterplans in which she had become trapped.

All this comes together in a fascinating fantasy world full of powerful imagery, ominous mysteries, swiftly building suspense, and touching character relationships which, I expect, will continue to generate great storytelling in books to come. To-date one sequel has been published, titled Sapphique. Click here for a list of other books by the author of Snow-Walker and Darkhenge.”

Robbie F wrote this review Saturday, April 14, 2012. ( reply | permalink )