Arkspire by Jamie Littler
| Arkspire by Jamie Littler | |
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| Category: Confident Readers | |
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Reviewer: John Lloyd
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| Summary: This fantasy world offers riches, and a kind of a lesson about our own circumstances, but the jolly fun is the stand-out reason for buying. | |
| Buy? Yes | Borrow? Yes |
| Pages: 384 | Date: July 2023 |
| Publisher: Puffin | |
| External links: Author's website | |
| ISBN: 9780241586143 | |
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There is a touch of the steampunk about this, giving it something straighter fantasies don't always have. That said there is an ageless magical ability too, controlled by a few for the benefit of the many, and a class system yet to deliver from its lower ranks anyone to be one of the few. Principal, however, in reading this is a boundless energy that makes it seriously worth your attention.
Two sisters, Juniper and Elodie, born fifteen minutes apart, are growing to be chalk and cheese. Juniper is an eager hunter and trader in illicit magic, including relics from prior major wars left out in the Badlands. Elodie is intent on getting closer to power in one of the religious districts of Arkspire, perhaps even to become the child in line to inherit the power of the Watcher, the closest to a ruler the district has, and one of the five major victors in said earlier war. Being trained in the magic that only five people can use would definitely change the status of the whole family. But in finding something oddly magical, Juniper might just be able to gain some power of her own – for good, or for very, very bad…
This is not a wonderful, wonderful book, but is still a straight-up success. Any flaws it has are down to it being a Book One, and it might not exactly be said to suffer in the usual way of presenting half a plot once the world-building has been established, but it does sit awkwardly on the page at times, in being so evidently a set-up, and something nowhere near finished at the close, with many of a set of five Herculean tasks yet to be tried. And one way that it doesn't just bludgeon us with its concept and setting and backstory, eventually getting to a plot, is by using that energy I mentioned from the off – showing character through action, revealing situation through drama. It's a prominent lesson for many writing courses and people still to this day think it can be ignored, and that expository waffle is the way to go. Not at all here.
Some of that awkwardness is unfortunately a bit too keen to build up in the middle quarter, where the book loses some drive, and introduces a character only worth disliking – happily they aren't nearly as prominent as I feared. This is married to an effort to show the socialist side of this story, the complaint of the heroine Juniper and all those like her, about life in the undercity. Let's just say this carries through into the final third in a way so much better than it might have been done by lesser hands.
To me, this had a lot of the reasons why people might turn to MG fantasy, with a wonderful and diverse world well realised, that almost shines a light on our own with what it says about religion, control and class systems. The leads are likeable, and Juniper is only one small remove from the oh, didn't you know, your destiny was to find your power and save the universe overnight?! heroine, but that small distance makes a world of difference. The light-hearted (I won't go as far as saying comedic) approach she has to discovering life with what she does get invested with is full of agency but none of the cheese of straighter fantasies. There certainly will be more of this – the first sequel tentatively titled The Order of the Misfits – and that, dear reader, is no bad thing.
I must thank the publishers for this, which in my parlance is a strong four stars.
The author's previous series began with Frostheart. Certainly at one point in Arkspire you feel the heroine will cross to another world – in The Nowhere Thief by Alice M Ross that happens aplenty.
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You can read more book reviews or buy Arkspire by Jamie Littler at Amazon.co.uk Amazon currently charges £2.99 for standard delivery for orders under £20, over which delivery is free.
You can read more book reviews or buy Arkspire by Jamie Littler at Amazon.com.
Check prices, read reviews or buy from Waterstones. Waterstones currently charges from £2.75 for orders under £20, over which delivery is free. You may also click and collect from a Waterstones bookshop at no charge.
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