Category: Fantasy

Book Review: The Ninja Librarians

On By cherylmahoneyIn Fantasy, Reviews5 Comments

A few years ago, my book club elected to read Alcatraz vs. the Evil Librarians, which proved to be a terrible mistake. I think the book we were actually looking for (although it hadn’t been written yet) was The Ninja Librarians: The Accidental Keyhand by Jen Swann Downey–full of awesome, sword-wielding, time-traveling Lybrarians.

In the middle of the Pen and Sword Festival at their local library, Dorrie and her brother Marcus stumble through a strange door and find themselves in Petrarch’s Library, headquarters of the Lybrarians, who travel through time to defend anyone in danger due to something they wrote or said. Dorrie is convinced this is the work she was always meant for, and Marcus falls hard for a pretty Lybrarian. Although they are taken in on a temporary basis and begin to make friends, there are still suspicions that they could be spies for the evil Foundation, and questions left unanswered about how the doorway appeared in their local library to begin with.

This is an absolute delight of a middle-grade book, perfect for fans of Harry Potter and book lovers everywhere. Although the time is much more compressed than in Harry Potter, the structure is essentially the same, of ordinary kids adjusting to a magical school, making friends and learning new skills, while a darker threat lurks (and occasionally requires secret ventures out into the night to deal with it!) Continue reading “Book Review: The Ninja Librarians” →

Book Review: Return to the Hundred Acre Wood

On By cherylmahoneyIn Fantasy, Juvenile, Reviews10 Comments

I always take a rather dim view of new authors writing sequels to classic fiction. Sometimes it works, but I’m always suspicious—so Return to the Hundred Acre Wood by David Benedictus proved to be a pleasant surprise.

It might have helped a great deal that he began with an Exposition, a kind of foreword, of the author speaking to the characters about the possibility of a new story (Eeyore is sure it will all turn out wrong). The author concludes that he can really only guess and hope that he will guess right–and the characters promise faithfully to help him get it right.  And this at least makes me feel that he has a good firm grasp of the size of the shoes he is attempting to fill, which makes me feel much better on the whole subject. Continue reading “Book Review: Return to the Hundred Acre Wood” →

Book Review: The Crown of Dalemark

On By cherylmahoneyIn Fantasy, Reviews, Young Adult9 Comments

The first three books of the Dalemark Quartet by Diana Wynne Jones seem for all the world like they have nothing much to do with each other—until we finally get to Book Four, The Crown of Dalemark, which ties it all together. The funny thing is, it didn’t come along until twenty years after the third book. It makes me wonder if Jones had the fourth book in mind all along, or if she looked back at three slightly-connected books and decided to bring them together.

The book opens with a return to a familiar character, Mitt, who in Drowned Ammet botched an assassination and escaped to the “free North” of Dalemark. Unfortunately, he now finds himself the victim of blackmailing by a northern Earl—his friends will suffer if he doesn’t assassinate Noreth, a noble girl who claims to be the daughter of the One, and plans to unite all of Dalemark.

In the second section, we jump some two hundred years into the future, to a much more modern-feeling Dalemark, and meet Maewen. She happens to be the perfect image of Noreth. A magician(ish) sends her back to Mitt’s time, to take the place of the disappeared Noreth. With hazy ideas of how the history of the time is meant to turn out, Maewen tries to lead her small band of followers, including Mitt and Moril, the minstrel from Cart and Cwidder, to ride the “green roads” and unite Dalemark. But the ancient evil we met in The Spellcoats is stalking them, and someone in Maewen’s band is a traitor.

I really wanted to love this book—and I ended up liking it, so that’s not really so bad. This is much longer than the first two books, and it has a much more sweeping, epic feel to it. We’re dealing with complex plots and significant events, and the fate of the country as well as the particular characters plainly hangs in the balance. Continue reading “Book Review: The Crown of Dalemark” →

Book Review: The Spellcoats

On By cherylmahoneyIn Fantasy, Reviews, Young Adult5 Comments

My favorite book of Diana Wynne Jones’ Dalemark Quartet is Book Three: The Spellcoats.  Oddly enough, it exists completely separately from the previous two books, to the point that (barring one epilogue-type note at the end), you can’t tell you’re in the same series when you read it.  In fact, I read my library’s copy a couple of times without ever realizing it was part of something else!

The Spellcoats is set centuries (millennia?) before the previous two books in the quartet.  Tanaqui, a young woman who is a highly skilled weaver, lives with her father and her siblings along the Great River.  When invaders from across the sea plunge the country into war, Tanaqui and her siblings flee down the river, in danger from their own people because of their resemblence to the invaders.  At the mouth of the river they meet the true enemy, a powerful magician intent on stealing souls.  Tanaqui must learn about her family’s past and her own magic to save her family and the country that will, eventually, become Dalemark. Continue reading “Book Review: The Spellcoats” →

Book Review: The False Prince

On By cherylmahoneyIn Fantasy, Reviews, Young Adult8 Comments

Some books make the circuit of lots of blogs I read…and sometimes it still takes me a long time to get to them!  I finally picked up The False Prince by Jennifer A. Neilson, after seeing rave reviews from other bloggers.  And the good thing about waiting so long?  The rest of the trilogy is already out!

The False Prince is told to us by Sage, an orphan boy who is one day plucked from his orphanage by Conner, a wealthy noble with a sinister manner.  Sage soon learns that Conner is collecting orphan boys, intending to train them to pose as the long-lost Prince Jaron and prevent a succession crisis leading to civil war.  But only one boy will be chosen for the role, and Conner’s ruthlessness and secrecy make it clear that those left unchosen will be killed. Continue reading “Book Review: The False Prince” →