For middle-grade (MG) post number two, the books featured
are from authors I’m already familiar with.
Aru Shah and the Song
of Death (Apr. 30, 2019) by Roshani Chokshi.
*This is the second novel in a tetralogy.*
Aru (Arundhati Shah) and Mini (Yamini Kapoor-Mercado-Lopez)
have recently returned from a quest. What does this call for? Training? For the
Pandavas surely lack immaculate form. Or, how about another harrowing quest in
which you might die, and, hey, you’re liable to be banished from the Otherworld,
rendering your life possibly meaningless anyway! Yippee! Aru and Mini won’t be
alone on this quest, as they’ve gained another Pandava sister, Brynne (Brynne
Tvarika Lakshmi Balamuralikrishna Rao) (soul-daughter of Vayu, the god of the
wind), and Aiden Archarya, the [cute] new boy in Aru’s class who’s recently
moved in across the street from her. Aiden calls Urvashi, the most beautiful apsara, his aunt. What? How? Semi-divine
lineage? Distressingly, the Pandavas have been accused of stealing Kamadeva’s
bow and arrow by Queen Uloopi, a naga queen who was once one of Arjuna’s [four]
wives. Even worse, Boo is held in custody as a possible accomplice and
therefore cannot help them. They have 10 mortal days to return what was stolen
and restore the Heartless (all males, interestingly enough). Their trek will
eventually take them to the Ocean of Milk and the mysterious Lady M.
Bring on
more Hindu mythology, I always say! (Okay, I never say that.) With the
appearance of new characters, this second installment is fresh with plenty of
spunk and attitude. It’s an adventure worthy of any Rick Riordan
mythology-based novel. This novel is as fascinating as the first, and I
thoroughly enjoyed familiar pop-culture references (“STOP SINGING MULAN!” --Boo). The story is peppy, the
dialogue is witty, and the celestial beings are as cantankerous and/or vague
and/or possibly murderous as we’d expect them to be. Grab your packet of Oreos,
remember to take your Vitamin D, and enjoy this tale!
Book One in
the Pandava Series: Aru Shah and theEnd of Time
*This is the fourth novel in an unnamed series.
Works as a standalone.*
Dwarves are known for mining deep underground and taught to
fear The Surface, but Borlen has an unnatural fear of the depths – depth
sickness instead of altitude sickness – and has an unheard-of pull toward The
Surface, going so far as to try to sneak up there. He has no interest in
mining, though he loves eating rubies (they can subsist on anything from rubble
to precious gems, the gems providing far more nutrition), and does not care for
singing (no “Heigh-ho” song for him). Out of desperation, Borlen’s parents get
him on a mining crew at a very young age (he’s still well under 100 years old).
At the Bestowal of Axes and Fate Stones, he receives a very fine ax and when
it’s time to mine for his Fate Stone (it’s a kind of talisman, meant to be a
protection and guide for miners), he finds a reflecting stone. Its rareness, instead of empowering him,
highlights how different he is from all the other dwarves. On the crew, Borlen
is the dreaded Seventh. Normally only
six on a crew, the Seventh is the lackey, the gopher, the runner, doing all the
tasks that none of the others want to do, like clear out debris or clean axes.
It is not a position of honor. Borlen’s fear of depths and mining misery
quickly earn him the nickname Grump, though mute Gilpin (the Sixth) would be
his friend.
Borlen
takes the opportunity to visit The Surface when it presents itself. Instead of
staying a couple hours, he stays for many weeks when Queen Elfreida Veronika
Ingrid Lenore (a.k.a. Queen E.V.I.L.) accepts him as her most trusted friend
and advisor. He finally feels important and seen. But when the queen uses his
words to validate her order to have the Huntsman kill Snow White and imprison
many innocent maidens (including a baby), Borlen realizes her true character.
When both the queen and Snow White take him by the beard (true horrors), he
struggles to outwit the queen while protecting Snow White. Not by choice does
Borlen lead her to the dwarf tunnels, having an impromptu reunion with his
crew. It’s going to make Grump extra grumpy, but lonely, too.
For anyone
thinking middle-grade fantasy fiction lacks depth, s/he is wrong, and I’m not
only saying that because the story involves mining beneath The Surface. While
not an overly complex story, it bears emotional weight, as most of us know what
it’s like to be the one being teased or left out or thought of as too different.
The story is balanced by innocuous humor and strengthened as Borlen (a.k.a.
Grump) realizes he is capable of having friends. This fourth twisted tale from
Shurtliff in an unnamed series is a work of imagination with good detail that
reads at a fast clip and looks, perhaps, to set up a “true” tale featuring
Rapunzel. Likely a sure hit for fans, this story is a bolstering reminder that
heroes can be as flawed as the rest of us. And if you happen to be short and a
little bit grumpy, well, more power to you!
Book One:
Rump
Book Two:
Jack (did not review)
Book Three:
Red
Time Castaways: The
Mona Lisa Key (Sept. 18, 2018) by Liesl Shurtliff.
*This is the first novel in a series.*
The Hudson children are never to ride the subway without an
adult. Ever. That rule sounds ridiculous to them; they live in NYC, after all,
but they heed it all the same. At least until the day that they wake up one
morning with their parents gone and a scribbled note telling them to get
themselves to school and to stick together always. Mateo (the eldest, adopted,
goes by Matt) and twins Ruby and Corey (not adopted, less than a year younger)
hop on the subway’s six train, because Corey wants churros. But not only are
they going in the wrong direction of churros and school, they wind up on the
“V” line, which they’ve never heard of, and end in Paris in 1911. Yes, that’s
right. 1911. When they had solidly been in 2019. Going to steal the Mona Lisa painting before Vincenzo
Peruggia can (as he did in actuality). The “V” stands for the Vermillion, and its resting transport is
a ship, but it can be a train, plane, bus, gondola, submarine, whatever it
needs to be for the time they’re visiting. Captain Vincent commands (or
commandeers) the time-traveling vessel, which has a mind of its own and always
smells of peanut butter. Captain Vincent is both a father figure to the youth
of the vessel (all orphans, save the Hudsons) and lead thief. Matt is intrigued
by the Obsidian Compass, which the captain uses to direct the vessel to its
destinations in time. When they read a note supposedly written by someone they
know, the Hudson trio become suspicious of their appearance on the Vermillion.
It seems their being picked up by Captain Vincent and his crew is not
coincidence. And if he or his unfriendly, hissing rat Santiago catch onto them,
they may find themselves to be time
castaways. What is Captain Vincent’s end goal? Who is this Captain Bonnaire
that Captain Vincent pines for? How are the Hudson children connected in all of
this? Are Matt’s seizures somehow related to this time-traveling stuff?
The first
in Shurtliff’s Time Castaways series
contains both contemporary life and steampunk magic rolled into a rollicking,
middle-grade adventure aboard a time-traveling, shape-shifting vessel. It even
has a library. Amazing! The story is refreshingly diverse without glorifying
that it is, in terms of race, culture and the time the characters were born in.
It’s not a tale filled with tons of laugh-out-loud moments, but I found that
that did not stop me from being fully entertained by the book. Already a fan of
Shurtliff (as seen above in this post), I will undoubtedly continue the fantasy
series. Because who can resist time pirates?
No comments:
Post a Comment
You have a book or post-related comment on your mind? Wonderful! Your comments are welcome, but whether you are a regular or guest Rutabaga, I expect you to keep your comments clean and respectable. :-)