This inventive, eerie tale of modern London is urban
fantasy for young adults who love to shiver. MOONLANDS
starts with a pack of wolves hurtling through the darkened
streets. Places of weakness between their moon-ruled world
and ours occur at the gates of the old Roman city wall;
Newgate, Cripplegate and so on. Since weapons cannot pass
these gates, the wolves have been sent. Their mission is
to
pursue and kill a girl.
Ashley has no notion that a werewolf, Blackwater Blaze,
stalks her. Nor that subtle earth magics are at work to
protect her. She lives in expensive Mayfair - how her
family come by the money we're not told, but her mother
runs a busy talent agency and her father is a big-business
accountant. Her fusty girls' school uses Regent's Park for
sports practice. When her aunt dies, red-headed Ashley is
left a key and an address at Clerkenwell, so she blithely
heads off there after school to see what the key will
open.
Tension and feelings of otherworldly unpleasantness are
initially generated by the wolf thinking about corpses,
rot, foulness, decay and so on, rather than action. He
spots crow-people perched spookily on roofs and meets an
otherworld assassin called the Nightgaunt. Blackwater
Blaze
communicates with his master in his own world which fills
us in on who wants Ashley dead and why. What a horrible
motive. The wolf is also now devoid of a pack. But he
can't
go home until he's finished his work. However, the wolf
in
him does get to work on someone, and it's not pleasant.
This starts a panic of running, old magics like wolfsbane
and silver, and revelations. Some of the action, like Ash
deciding to go off on her own, didn't make much sense to
me. Ashley's pal, party girl Mel, is oblivious and gets
caught up in the danger. Again, why wouldn't Ash tell her
what was happening? The up to the minute atmosphere of
wearable music and phones that double as torches contrasts
nicely with old personal effects like lockets, tatty books
and aviator goggles which help reveal secrets to Ashley.
Steven Savile has written for series like Doctor Who,
which
may explain the blend of this world with otherworld, and
the visual aspects of his writing. I felt the story lost
me
a little when Ashley travelled to the Moonlands of the
title, but other readers might enjoy the exploration. The
end of the tale leaves us with foreboding but I don't know
if there will be a follow-on story. I suggest that
MOONLANDS would be good for older teens who enjoy a blend
of fantasy and chillers.
Ashley Hawthorne thinks of herself as the Cuckoo Girl. No matter where she is it feels like she doesn’t quite belong. Everything changes when her eccentric aunt, Elspeth Grimm, leaves her the key to a safety deposit box in a bank that was destroyed during the Blitz. That box contains the first part of her true inheritance: an umbrella, a battered old notebook, a pair of aviator’s goggles and a locket. Each of these gifts is a unique part of who she really is. Elspeth is a Grimm, a descendent of the brothers who purged this world of monsters by trapping them within the Concord. She is the Oracle. A keeper of all the knowledge we have amassed about the creatures of the Fae and other worlds. And someone intent on destroying the Concord has murdered her! When Ashley looks through the goggles that night she sees curious creatures on the roof of the house across the street watching her. To the naked eye they look like crows but they are not. It is the first glimpse of the other place—the place where she will finally belong. The journal is crammed full of things, but there’s no actual writing in it. Ash decides she’s going to use the book as a journal, and begins the first entry: My name is Ashley Hawthorne. The ink fades so she writes it again. My name is Ashley Hawthorne. Again the ink fades. She tries again and again until the ink scratches out an entirely different first line: That is not who you are! "Savile's writing is achingly beautiful and sweeps the reader away into a fantastic world they'll never want to leave. The story grips you by the throat and doesn’t let go, leaving you hungry for more. The author mixes political intrigue and epic fantasy in a coming-of-age story that will leave readers desperate to know how it’s all going to turn out for the young heroine and the assassin sent to hunt her down. This is a classic in the making." Debbie Viguie, NYT #1 Bestselling Author of The Wicked series
© 2003-2024 off-the-edge.net
all rights reserved Privacy Policy