Series: Wayward Children # 3
Format: Kindle, 157 pages
Release Date: January 9th 2018
Publisher: Tor.com
Source: Publisher
Genre: Young Adult / FantasyBeneath the Sugar Sky,
the third book in McGuire's Wayward Children series, returns to Eleanor
West's Home for Wayward Children in a standalone contemporary fantasy
for fans of all ages. At this magical boarding school, children who have
experienced fantasy adventures are reintroduced to the "real" world.
When Rini lands with a literal splash in the pond behind Eleanor West's
Home for Wayward Children, the last thing she expects to find is that
her mother, Sumi, died years before Rini was even conceived. But Rini
can’t let Reality get in the way of her quest – not when she has an
entire world to save! (Much more common than one would suppose.) If she
can't find a way to restore her mother, Rini will have more than a world
to save: she will never have been born in the first place. And in a
world without magic, she doesn’t have long before Reality notices her
existence and washes her away. Good thing the student body is
well-acquainted with quests... A tale of friendship, baking, and
derring-do. Warning: May contain nuts.
Beneath the Sugar Sky is the third installment in author Seanan McGuire's Wayward Children series. Welcome back to Eleanor West's home for Wayward Children. A school for those who have gone and come back and hope to go again when the wind is right, when the stars are bright, when the world remembers what it is to have mercy on the longing and the lost. There is No solicitation. No Visitors. No Quests. If you've read Every Heart is a Doorway, which I hope you have, you will remember Kade, Eleanor, Angela, and Christopher. I personally don't remember Nadya, the girl with the missing right arm, or Cora who apparently went to a world where she was a mermaid. I do remember what happened to Nancy at the very end.
So, this book begins when a girl named Rini literally drops out of the sky into a turtle pond. Rini claims that she is the daughter of Sumi Onishi and unless Sumi returns with her immediately, she will fade away and have never existed. Oh, and apparently needs to fight and overthrow the Queen of Cakes as well. Of course, we all know what happened to Sumi so there's a huge problem right off the bat. This leads to a quest for Kade, Christopher, Nadya, and Cora. If I am not mistaken, Confection land is really Candy Land but I could be wrong. The characters also visit the Land of the Dead where they meet the Lady of the Dead and the Lord of the Dead as well as Nancy who is very happy to be back home where she belongs.
Cora is a plus sized girl who has anxiety and spent time in the Land Beneath the Lake where she was a mermaid.
Nadya was born without an arm but she doesn't let it bother her. She went to a world called Belyyreka, a Drowned World.
Christopher had cancer which was cured after he visited Mariposa, a skeleton Underworld where he fell in love with a Skeleton Girl.
Kade has become Eleanor's second in command and once visited Fairyland.
Given that this is only a novella, I won't give away too much about the story. McGuire writes teens with diverse skin colors, ethnicities, sexualities, gender identities and disabilities.
Series: Wayward Children # 4
Format: Kindle, 187 pages
Release Date: January 8th 2019
Publisher: Tor.com
Source: Publisher
Genre: Young Adult / Fantasy This fourth entry and
prequel tells the story of Lundy, a very serious young girl who would
rather study and dream than become a respectable housewife and live up
to the expectations of the world around her. As well she should.
When
she finds a doorway to a world founded on logic and reason, riddles and
lies, she thinks she's found her paradise. Alas, everything costs at
the goblin market, and when her time there is drawing to a close, she
makes the kind of bargain that never plays out well.
In an Absent Dream is the fourth installment in author Seanan McGuire's Wayward Children series. Welcome
back to Eleanor West's home for Wayward Children. A school for those
who have gone and come back and hope to go again when the wind is right,
when the stars are bright, when the world remembers what it is to have
mercy on the longing and the lost. There is No solicitation. No
Visitors. No Quests. If you've read Every Heart is a Doorway, which I hope you have, you will remember Katherine Victoria Lundy, or just Lundy as she was called.
This is Lundy story from beginning to when she arrives at Eleanor's Home for Wayward Children. Lundy's story is of a girl who is a Bookworm,
introvert and smart. She does not fit in her own
world, living friendless, restricted by her father’s overprotective
walls, hold onto her books to breathe and exist. Then one day as she is walking home, she discovers a doorway in a tree and like those before he, it tells he to Be Sure. Lundy's world is a goblin market based of Fair Trade. This isn’t really a kind world but a pocket in space and time that has specific rules.
Rule one: ask for nothing
Rule two: names have power
Rule three: always give fair value
Rule four: take what is offered and be grateful
Rule five: remember the curfew
and most importantly - BE SURE
It
is a world where if you do not do the right things and contribute
enough being fair in your dealings with others it will show. The world
uses a trade and barter system and if you and not contributing enough
you might grow talons or feathers, your body will start to shift to the
anatomy of the creature you will turn into if you let it go too far. But
it is a fair world where you can also do the right thing and the
feathers on your chest or in your hair will go away. Everyone is a
contributor to the community and those that aren’t wear it on their
skin.
Lundy is also able to travel back and forth between the market and home throughout this glimpse into her life until she is forced to make one final choice before she turns 18. I would not say this is a happy story knowing what happened to Lundy in Every Heart is a Doorway. Lundy’s
friendship with Moon adorable but also sad after she makes a stunning choice. The Archivist, a keeper of knowledge and a
helper of sorts for the Goblin Market was also a great and semi scary
character in the story. While Karen, and Nadya, and even Sumi ended up having a happy ending, that's not the way Lundy's ends up.
No comments:
Post a Comment