Nielsen does an excellent job of keeping you guessing; Sage is the missing prince, no he can't be, the real prince really is dead and so on. Sage is an excellent narrator giving clues that the reader only picks up in hindsight. I can't wait for the next installment, but I'll have to as it isn't expected to be released until next spring with the title The Runaway King.
Sage has spent the past several years in orphanages and one day Connor, a nobleman, picks Sage to come with him. They stop at several other orphanages and Connor picks out other boys before heading to his estate. There, Connor reveals that the royal family has been murdered and one of the boys will be chosen to become the missing prince - the boy thought to have died several years before. The boys have two weeks to learn as much as they can to beat the others out because the boys who lose likely won't see the next day.
Nielsen does an excellent job of keeping you guessing; Sage is the missing prince, no he can't be, the real prince really is dead and so on. Sage is an excellent narrator giving clues that the reader only picks up in hindsight. I can't wait for the next installment, but I'll have to as it isn't expected to be released until next spring with the title The Runaway King. At the beginning seventh grade, Phoebe decides she's not going to put up with the selfish and vapid Collette and the popular crowd. When new girl Mallory arrives wearing the strangest outfits, Phoebe steps up and befriends Mallory, she has thrown away her social status, something that Phoebe has never regretted. Now, years later as juniors, Phoebe and Mallory are so close, they are practically sisters. What Phoebe doesn't know is that Mallory isn't who she says she is and that Phoebe is needed to save Mallory's people from decay. Years ago, one of Phoebe's ancestors made a bargain with the fairy queen and Mallory has been sent to collect Phoebe to fulfill the contract. However, Mallory has come to love Phoebe and keeps delaying bringing her to Faerie. Therefore, the fairy queen has decided that it is time for Ryland to step in as Mallory's brother and bring Phoebe to Faerie. Of course Phoebe is going to fall in love with Ryland, which is exactly what he wants. Phoebe is eventually gives in to her fate, but the outcome isn’t what anybody expected, which demonstrates the power of love. This trio of companion novels takes place in a collection of kingdoms where there are people born with "Graces," specific abilities, such as strength and fighting. Gracelings are distinguished by their differently colored eyes and in most cases people are wary of gracelings. In the first novel, Graceling, Katsa is a particularly feared because of her graced fighting skills. She is feared even more because her uncle, the king, uses her as a bully to keep his nobles in line. He sends Katsa to deliver brutal physical punishment and threats and Katsa hates to be used so. In an attempt to do something worthwhile in the world, Katsa and several others have formed a council to carry out justice and assist those being oppressed. On one of those missions, Katsa comes across another graceling, one that will change the way she sees her life.
Fire takes place in a neighboring kingdom where there are not gracelings, but monsters - creatures of indescribable color and beauty and Fire is a human monster. Like gracelings, monsters are greatly feared for their ability of mind control. Fire lives secluded with a select company of people who are able to resist her beauty so as to live in peace. She has come to accept her quiet life and doesn't expect more. However, Fire is swept up in the war raging around her when her ability allows her to look for enemies, and she finds something she never expected: love. Bitterblue takes place years after Graceling and Fire and features a character from Graceling. Bitterblue has become queen after the death of her tyrannical father. She struggles to be a good queen after the kingdom has suffered from terrible oppression, but she finds that difficult with advisors who want to protect her from knowing the atrocities her father committed. Bitterblue's frustration leads her to disguise herself and enter the city. There she learns more about her people and the conditions in which they live. She also meets a graceling who intrigues her and pushes her to be a better queen, though he doesn't know her true identity. I absolutely love all three books and while Cashore has said she is done writing books with these characters I felt that the ending of Bitterblue left room for more. I'm hoping she reconsiders and continues giving us more of these characters. If you like reading about the possibilities of a bleak future, then these two titles are for you! In the future, the United States has torn itself apart with fighting. The land has been ravaged and people either live in extreme poverty or extreme wealth. There are very few you can trust and trying to survive to the next day is the norm for the majority of the population.
In Ship Breaker, Nailer works on the ships that ran aground years ago and were abandoned. His job is to fit into the smaller spaces and pull out copper wiring. He lives with his abusive father and survives as best he can. One day, a massive hurricane blows through the Gulf and Nailer comes across a damaged clipper ship whose parts could mean a lifetime of comfort for Nailer. Nailer boards the ship and discovers one survivor, a girl. Now Nailer must choose between being rich or helping someone else. The Drowned Cities takes place in the same wreck of a country as Ship Breaker, but in the jungles near the former city of Washington D.C. Mahlia and Mouse live with Dr. Mafouz and assist him with his medical practice, while trying to avoid the various warring factions. One day they become entangled with one group of solider boys and Mahlia and Mouse can never go back to the life they led. Friendship becomes the driving force for Mahlia as she comes to discover what is important in life. Tunnels by Roderick Gordon and Brian Williams Will's favorite hobby is digging with his father. They go on local archeological-type digs in abandoned subway tunnels. Will's father begins to act strangely and isn't able to dig with Will, so Will recruits his best friend Chester. Shortly thereafter, things get really weird. One of the tunnels Will and Chester had been working on is filled in and Will's father disappears. After some time, Will decides to see if there are any clues to his father's disappearance in the basement and there Will discovers a tunnel: one his father never told him about. So, Will does the only thing possible: he and Chester go looking. And what they find is beyond imaginable. That's all I'm going to tell you because I don't want to give things away. This is certainly a different story that is a bit on the dark side. Will's life just keeps getting more and more complicated, so much so that there are four more books. This is one of those novels that once you start reading you cannot put it down. No matter how many times you say to yourself just a few more pages and that's it for now, you'll find yourself caught up and you simply cannot put the book down. Five-year-old Jack lives with his mom in Room. Room is the extent of Jack's world - he has never been outside it and his mom is the only person he knows. Old Nick comes on occasion, but Jack's mom hides him in Wardrobe when Nick comes. Jack is comfortable with is life, but his mom is beginning to strain under the confinement and Jack doesn't understand why she would ever want to leave. This is a fascinating story told not only from a child's perspective, but from a child whose entire world is an eleven-by-eleven square foot room. There is an emotional investment into this story and you want things to work out for Jack and his mom. It is clear the author put a large amount of time into researching women and children held in seclusion. This is a superior novel and I very strongly recommend it. As the eldest child of the king and queen, and without any male heirs, seventeen-year-old Alera is expected to select a husband and assume the throne by her next birthday. Alera's father is looking forward to stepping down and passing the responsibilities on to the next generation. He has selected his successor and given the young man permission to court Alera. He has also given Alera some time to find a husband on her own, but her time is running short. The man of her father's choosing, Steldor, is arrogant and condescending and Alera can't stand him. However, her choices are slim and it is either marry Steldor and become queen or step down and allow her sister to take her place as queen and Steldor’s wife. A further complication arrives when someone from the enemy nation is caught on castle grounds. Furthermore, Narian, the son of a noble family who was snatched as an infant by the enemy, has now returned after sixteen years. Alera is intrigued by all that is going on and when she meets Narian, she knows there is no way she can marry Steldor and is determined to make her father see that Narian is not a threat. This is an engrossing read that requires the reader to weigh Alera's choices between duty and love. In Allegiance, Alera’s life becomes infinitely more difficult as she is torn between love and nation and the series is concluded in Sacrifice. Melkorka is a young princess of Medieval Ireland. The coast is under constant threat from Viking invaders and when the castle is threatened, Melkorka and her sister are sent away by their mother to keep them safe. The two girls never make it to safety and are snatched and taken captive aboard a Viking ship. This begins Melkorka's harrowing journey into slavery which takes her thousands of miles away from home. To retain an aspect of herself, Melkorka refuses to speak. In this way she has inadvertently protected herself from the male slavers; they all think that she could cast a spell on them and therefore they avoid her. She watches as women and children are brought on board and later sold. She continually looks for the opportunity to escape, but how could she possible survive on her own to make her way home across thousands of miles of foreign land? Napoli discovered a scrap of a story about an Irish princess who told her story to her son in Iceland and the author created a story for the young girl. This was an intriguing read and I highly recommend it. Samuel Johnson has decided that he is going to beat the Halloween trick-or-treating rush by going out three days before everyone else. His first stop is to the Abernathy's where Mrs. Abernathy is behaving very strangely and there is a blue, glowing light emanating from the basement. Samuel is deeply suspicious and when he peeks into the basement window it would appear that the Abernathy's have opened the gates of Hell. Now Samuel's problem is trying to convince someone of what he saw. This is actually a fun story and I would recommend it because of the not-so-evil demon Nurd. He had been banished to the Wasteland because of his deficiency as a demon and now finds himself being sucked from his dimension to our world. Nurd makes his acquaintance with Samuel and they become friends. Nurd doesn’t quite understand our world but knows that he doesn’t want it destroyed by the demon legions. This is a very entertaining read and if you'd like to have a laugh at the Great Malevolence's expense, then this is an excellent choice. I absolutely love Tamora Pierce's short novels, but she has given us some rather hefty tomes of late. I picked up Terrier because Pierce wrote it and it was an okay story. Basically, teenage Becca Cooper enters training as a "dog," kind of like a junior police officer. Her assignment is in the lower city where the worst of the poverty and crime is and in all three novels, Becca becomes embroiled in a major case. Bloodhound is much like Terrier and while I enjoyed it well enough I didn't love it. Mastiff, the final book of the series however, I did love! This one I couldn't put down. This novel seemed to cover a larger scope than the other two and with Becca and her companions constantly on the move the pace was quick which I like. I also thoroughly enjoy the mage Master Farmer. He isn't who he seems he is and added a lot of character to the story. Though I've implied that Terrier and Bloodhound aren't spectacular books, they are worth the read to get to Mastiff. I would recommend anything Pierce writes, but start small and work your way up. |
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