ISBN: 0-590-55357-7 Order from: Amazon.com
This juvenile, second in a series, which is targeted at pre-teen readers, has some sense of wonder but little originality or emotion.
Reviewed by David on April 04, 1999
Genre: Fantasy (Juvenile)
Synopsis: This book, second in a cycle of four, tells of four outcast children, all with unusual talents, who, after losing (or never having) their homes, find a shelter in a community of magic-teachers.
Full Review: The young outcasts, from a daughter of nobles who lost her parents to the plague, to a young thief whose luck ran out, are sent to a community of magicians, where wise but sometimes exasperatingly enigmatic adults find ways to teach the stubborn youngsters. Forced by the circumstances into a grudging friendship, the four become a formidable team, when their untrained but considerable strengths, magic and mundane, are combined.
In this book, Tris, the talented but untrained weather-witch, and her three friends become involved in the pirate's attack against their community. Tris's powers, which can be deadly when used without control, present both danger and help when the invasion turns deadly. This time, the pirates, are using both sorcery and treachery to take the normally well-defended town.
Despite the adults' attempts to shield the children from the fighting, the four become critical when the arcane defenses are breached. Tris and her friends must unite again to fight the deadly danger.
The book features fairly conventional motifs of alienation, friendship and magical apprenticeship.
While a decent introduction to fantasy for a young reader, this novel contains little depth of emotion that characterize the best juvenile fantasies from McKinley, McKillip, Yolen and LeGuin.
Overall: 4.5; Plot: 4.5; Characters: 4.5; Style: 5; World-building: 5.5; Originality: 5;
Copyright date 1993, Scholastic, November 1993, Cloth
ISBN: 0-590-55357-7 Order from: Amazon.com