That is how he meets Jane, a kid with a tremendous imagination and an open position for a worthy knight. That is how Leo and Jane become friends. And that is when their adventures begin. This charming tale of friendship—from two of the best young minds in picture books: the author of the Caldecott Honor—winning Extra Yarn and the illustrator of the Bologna Ragazzi Award—winning Josephine—is destined to become a modern classic that will delight readers for years to come.
Plus, this is the fixed format version, which will look almost identical to the print version. Additionally for devices that support audio, this ebook includes a read-along setting.
Mina was born on the longest night of the darkest month of the year. When her father looked at her, all he saw was what he feared: By birth, by name, by nature, she belonged to the Dark. So when Mina turned sixteen, her father took her away from shadow and brought her into sunlight. In retaliation, her mother lured a handsome prince into a deadly agreement: If he frees Mina, he can claim her as his bride.
Now Mina and her prince must endure deadly trials -- of love and fate and family -- before they can truly live happily ever after I Was There Viking Invasion is an exciting account of a young boy helping to defend his village against fearsome Viking invaders. In some children, the old blood shows, giving them strength, speed, and mystical power. In the cities of Abeth's Corridor, such children are prized.
But on the vast ice plains of Abeth, those traits lead children to burn bright and die young, and the discipline of the priests is harsh. Any child who shows signs of the old races is cast into the Pit of the Missing, never to be seen again.
Yaz is only sixteen, but she feels a burgeoning gift and she knows the next gathering will be her last--the priests see everything, and her aberrance will not be tolerated. But then she is spared and her brother is identified as one of the broken and cast down into the pit. Stunned, awash with guilt and grief, she flings herself in after him. She expects to find death. Instead she finds a sprawling, secret civilization, where survival is even less assured than on the ice plains.
And she soon realizes that this underground empire revolves around a great truth--and an even greater evil--that puts all of Abeth in danger. Bestselling and award-winning author, Sharon G. Flake, delivers a mystery set in the s that eerily blends history, race, culture, and family.
Octobia May is girl filled with questions. Her heart condition makes her special - and, some folks would argue, gives this ten-year-old powers that make her a "wise soul.
That's when trouble, and excitement, and wonder begin. Auntie is non-traditional. She's unmarried and has plans to purchase other boarding homes and hotels. At a time when children, and especially girls, are "seen, not heard," Auntie allows Octobia May the freedom and expression of an adult. When Octobia starts to question the folks in her world, an adventure and a mystery unfold that beg some troubling questions: Who is black and who is "passing" for white?
What happens when a vibrant African American community must face its own racism? And, perhaps most important: Do vampires really exist? In her most and probing novel yet, Sharon G. Flake takes us on a heart-pumping journey. So I was thrilled when she asked and he said umm.. I think umm Even though the battles were won, My heart aches for Queen Thirrin. She might have gained a son in-law, an alliance with the polypontians, and an Emperor who needs a mother, but none of that can replace her Oskan, who she will never see again until the last hair on her head becomes the silver of moonlight.
As Oskan watches the Wedding reception with a crown of silver light upon his head, I am elated that he is among his family, but I'm sad that the story is over. View 2 comments. Sep 03, Erah rated it really liked it. The Icemark Chronicles always thrill me, and getting the chance to read this book made me so excited.
Once I began, however, it took a while to get into the story. I was eager for more of the series' trademark battle scenes and drama, but the first chunk of the book held only the slightest hints of those elements. I admit that I was slightly preoccupied while I read this, so blaming the slow pace on the book may not be entirely fair. One element that delighted me right away was the number of scenes from Kirimin's point of view.
Between her pranks and adventurous nature she is such a fun character, and I was so happy she got a bigger role in this book. As always Stuart Hill's thorough descriptions of both character and landscape were eerie and vivid, and despite my impatience it was wonderful to step back into the fierce world of the Icemark. This book holds an even wider range of fantastic creatures than those before it, and all my favourite furry or fanged monarchs were back although some of them seem to have become rather laid back in their older age, judging by their ability to think of nothing but sandwiches and beer.
I wish I approached this book as a hefty destrier rather than a sprinting horse, and allowed it the time necessary to build up speed for its impressive charge. It certainly delivered everything I wanted in the end, with all the military brilliance and action of the previous books, as well as reunions and partings that made it difficult to keep the pages dry. Crowning a series like this is quite a feat, but the Last Battle of the Icemark does so perfectly and when I came to the last line it took quite an effort not to wipe my eyes and leap up yelling, "Blood!
And Fire! Sep 11, Jennifer rated it liked it Shelves: sci-fi-fantasy , library. The Cry of the Icemark was OK. It took me a while to really get into it enough to not be annoyed.
I did like some of the characters quite well and the concept wasn't too bad. The dialogue was pretty stilted and awkward sometimes though. The heroine, Thirrin, becomes queen at 14, after the death of her father. She immediately has to go to war to defend her country from the evil Roman-ish Polypontian Empire to the south. Blade of Fire was absolutely my favorite of the three.
The youngest son of Thirrin is sent to the Desert People to try and gain allies for his family in their war against the Polypontian Empire. This book seemed the most natural to me and was pretty fun to read. The Last Battle of the Icemark contained no real surprises. Enemies become unlikely allies to defeat a common foe.
Characters I liked die in battle and peace is achieved in the end. Overall, not a bad series, but not great either. Jun 17, Ketandu rated it it was amazing Shelves: reads , favorites. This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers.
To view it, click here. A wonderfully fantastic conclusion to the amazing series! It's a shame who had to die for their peace, however Cressida and Leonidas were ridiculously adorable!
Before we get into this, a disclaimer: it has been a long time since I read the first two books in this trilogy. I know I read the first one in late grade school, so I must have read the second one in early junior high, maybe? I'm a year-old sophomore in college now, if that gives you any indication of how long it has actually been. We are talking multiple years here. My point being, while I recall the first two books being awesome , there is a chance I am not remembering them correctly.
So first, I apologize in advance if any of my statements about them are faulty or inaccurate, because memory is a fickle mistress. But also, my tastes and opinions have obviously grown, become more nuanced, and just generally changed since I last read this series. So perhaps they aren't even as great as I remember them being. My instinct tells me they were, and I have generally come to trust my instinct in such matters, but it is important to note that the chance does exist that year-old me could have been operating under an outdated set of standards and opinions and is, therefore, giving year-old me faulty information.
Just keep that in mind. That being said, I remember loving the first two books in this series. I loved how the story was about her coming to terms with not only becoming a queen in charge of an entire nation at such a young age 14, I think , but becoming a queen in charge of a nation that was being invaded.
And the story managed to be about and deal with these things without becoming a sappy romance or a teen drama. It involved teenagers, but the story was about war and leadership and friendship and so many other wonderful, meaningful things. I loved how in the second book, Sharley's story wasn't just a repeat of Thirrin's.
Sharley wasn't a warrior because of his injury, and he had to come to terms with this. He wasn't thrust into a position of leadership, but instead had to find his own place in the world and forge it for himself. Both books told two very different, very excellent stories that both managed to thoughtfully and mostly realistically deal with themes of war, responsibility, family, etc.
So, after all these years I finally got around to reading the finale to see how ends the story. I was beyond ecstatic to visit my old friends and return to the Icemark. Unfortunately, I found this concluding novel to be rather underwhelming and disappointing, especially after the epicness of the first two. First, let's talk about the antagonists of this third book. In the first and second book, we had Scipio Bellorum and to a lesser degree, his sons.
And, if you count her, Medea. He made for an excellent antagonist, because he was effective, dangerous, intelligent, and just cool in that smooth military general type of way. This third book, on the other hand, has three main antagonists instead of one and only one book in which to deal with them all, which is something that can be done well, I'm sure. Unfortunately, this book didn't really establish any of them well, which is hilariously paradoxical considering how much of the book is actually dedicated to them.
I think this is because I didn't really care for any of them. And I don't just mean that I didn't like them as people. I'm usually not supposed to like antagonists as people because they are either warped in such a way as to be despicable individuals or they simply oppose the protagonist I love and am rooting for.
But in Last Battle of the Icemark, I didn't like them as antagonists. None of them worked for me, and I will explain why. The first of our disappointing Antagonists Three is Medea, who is my least favorite by far.
Unfortunately for everybody, me included, she didn't die in the second book. She was my least favorite part of that one too, but there she felt very minor and secondary, so it was easier to shrug off my annoyance and focus on the parts I actually enjoyed. Book three, however, is very Medea-heavy. My problem with her is that I never really identified or sympathized with her at all.
She is a pouty, evil brat, but I never really understood why she is that way. She claims it is because Sharley was her parents' favorite and she was ignored, but I never really SAW any of that happening. I mean, early in the second book when war was looming, Sharley was the only one to be sent away for his own safety, but their parents' reasoning could arguably be that was because he was the youngest, wasn't a warrior, and was physically crippled on top of all that.
It made sense that he should be sent away; at that point in the story, he was in need of the most protecting. If that was an instance of favoritism, it was one so subtle it had to have been unintentional on the part of Thirrin and Oskan. And that is literally the only instance that could even maybe be seen as favoritism; other than that one vague instance, there is absolutely no evidence that any favoritism is happening whatsoever. If there was any case of actual blatant favoritism, it happened entirely off-page or before we came in at book two.
So I guess I just don't buy into her complaints because I never felt it happening and have only her word to go on that it exists at all. And I know this favoritism-turned-me-evil thing can be done well.
Look at Stephen King's Eyes of the Dragon. I felt that favoritism and actually SAW it in play. Peter would be like "Hi, Dad. God, I love you! Let's hang out today! I love you so much that I made you a present! Hi, Thomas.
That's nice, I guess. So, Peter…" God, I felt Thomas' pain and understood completely when he then made some morally questionable decisions. But with Medea, I never felt it. Not once. So I can't sympathize with why she is being an evil bitch, because her reasoning is essentially nonexistent.
So this makes all of her actions, her entire storyline in both the second book and this one, seem like an extended whiney, melodramatic teenage "My-life-is-so-unfair! Which, again, wasn't as critical a problem in the second book because her role in the story was relatively minor and on the sidelines.
She was the POV of essentially every other chapter, and it got to the point where I would literally groan every time I saw a chapter began with "Medea…" Which means that half of the book was extremely unenjoyable simply because I was forced to read about her ridiculous storyline. If you want her to return as a villain, fine, but there is really no point in making her an active POV character, especially when only a cursory effort has been given to make her sympathetic, likeable, or even believable.
Her half of the book was just ridiculous, boring, annoying, and pointless, and I really wish it wouldn't have been included. On to our next antagonist: Cronus and his whole supernatural storyline.
He was certainly more of a threat than Medea, whose tactical brilliance essentially consisted of failed plots, empty threats, and tantrums, and he wasn't as annoying, I guess, in the way a rock isn't as annoying as a screeching air-horn, but he was also rather boring. He just felt like The Big Bad, you know? He was essentially the Devil of this world: He rebelled against the Goddess, creator of all, failed, and was cast out of that world's version of Heaven.
Now he is plotting his revenge on a massive scale, not only to take out the Goddess, but to destroy the physical world as well. That storyline actually has the potential to be somewhat interesting, but my brief summary is basically all the detail we get.
He wasn't The Big Bad in a particularly new or unique way, he just WAS, which made him seem like an empty trope instead of a full-fledged character. Almost every word he said was some form of melodramatic "taking-over-the-world! It was always just some variation of: "I will destroy them! They will join with me! Soon my vengeance will be complete! Towards the end, it got to the point where it was actually kind of funny, and I don't think it was supposed to be. So as an antagonist, he was just rather dull.
Erinor was definitely my favorite of The Antagonists Three. She was clearly psychotic but in a way that was fascinating and fun to read about, and she definitely posed a threat. However , her general awesomeness was completely undermined by Cronus' supernatural storyline.
Cronus completely used her as a pawn in his own scheme by controlling her, and I don't mean he used subtle influencing or gentle nudges. He full on hopped in her head and took control of her thoughts and, sometimes, of her body. But even worse, it is stated that he did the same thing with Scipio Bellorum. That he, Cronus, was responsible for the other wars with the Icemark. Um, NO! I'm not on board with that. I am honestly pretending like that isn't even canon.
That didn't happen. I just don't understand. All those storylines, Bellorum's and Erinor's, were strong enough by themselves that they didn't need a lame supernatural explanation.
But he is and I don't, so I don't appreciate the more interesting storylines and the beloved storylines being forced in with his. Then we could have had an awesome story about the Polypontian Empire breaking down, Erinor and all her awesome craziness invading, and the Icemark having to form an uneasy alliance with their hated enemies to save both their nations.
That is a strong enough story on its own that it could have carried the whole book and felt more like an Icemark story in doing so. Then we could even have had time to explore a lot of things that were skimmed over or hastily done. Like, Cressida and Leonidas' romance.
It's okay as is, but it doesn't feel organic in the slightest. I liked how Cressida approached wooing him in a tactical way, but I don't feel like she would be one to moon over anybody, especially someone she had never met. If they had met and she grew to respect and love him for his battle prowess during the war, it would have felt a lot more believable than the random forced pairing we received. Or how there are actually only a few battle scenes in this entire war. Why do we only get two hasty battles?
Because we have spent too much time focusing on Medea and Cronus and their tedious plans for boring world-domination, so we have to hurry through the actual cool bits so the book doesn't get too long. The pacing was really off in this one. We spend a ridiculous amount of time slowly establishing these antagonists and the threat they pose even though they all fell flat anyway , but then each conflict is resolved in the most rushed manner possible. As I said with Erinor, she is built up to be this HUGE thing, but then we only get two hurried battles before she herself is insta-killed.
We spent even MORE time establishing Cronus and Medea as a threat, and then they and their army are whipped out by some of the most rushed deus-ex-machina storytelling I have ever seen. There were actually some cool skirmishes between their army and the vampires, but the way they are actually BEATEN is lame. First of all, the last battle of the Icemark against the Ice Demons was vague and poorly explained, especially by Stuart Hill standards.
He is usually awesome at describing battle tactics and which parts of the army are doing what and where, but besides the second battle against Erinor, they all felt very hasty in this third book. But this last battle especially felt like "Both sides were fighting hard, and, uh, losses heavy. Yada yada. Ghost army comes in and decimates Ice Demons. This ghost army just comes out of nowhere and saves the effing day. It wasn't pre-established ghosts could do this and there was no foreshadowing or build-up to this plot element AT ALL.
I literally had to do a double-take while reading, because I was like, "Did that just say 'ghost army'? What ghosts? How did they do that?! WHY did they do that?! Then Medea and Cronus are just blipped off the map by a magical loop-hole given to Oskan at the beginning. Which isn't terrible in and of itself, but their battle also felt forced and rushed like the author just wanted to hurry to the end.
The ending of essentially EVERY conflict and storyline just had this rushed feel about it that was hugely disappointing and unworthy of the Icemark Chronicles. The last chapter, in particular, was the most rushed summing-up-of-events chapter I have ever read, which is particularly damning considering this is the end of the trilogy and this last chapter is supposed to satisfyingly bring all the different characters to the end of their stories.
But, again, this last chapter had that "Um. He went here. They went there. They died. They got married. I don't want a hurried summary of what became of them; I want to linger a moment to say my farewells, but I never really felt like I got a good chance to do that, which is what the last part of the last book should be about.
I feel there is a lot left unsaid between us, and I'm sorry we were forced to part on such terms. This heavy focus on antagonists I don't care about also means that the main cast of characters I do love didn't have as much page time. Like, it makes me really angry that Sharley's entire storyline felt like a complete afterthought in this book. The only significant thing he was given to do was wander around the Plains of Desolation, which was a very weak storyline because all Sharley and Co.
That's it. The only real thing of import that happens is that they meet the Vampire King and learn about the whole "vampire soul" thing, which later becomes significant for the Vampire Queen's storyline.
But I feel like that could have been introduced in another way, maybe in such a way that would also explain how freaking ghosts can appear in this world out of nowhere, thus not making the end quite so random.
Like, it was said that the space between those worlds is thinnest on Halloween, which was how Sharley and Co. And besides this whole useless Plains of Desolation storyline, Sharley didn't have anything of import to do.
I would be reading and suddenly think, "Wait. Where the hell is Sharley? Like suddenly he would be with Cressida's cavalry or suddenly he would be somewhere else just kinda tacked on. Which isn't okay. He just felt like The Big Bad, you know? Thirrin and her allies — werewolves, vampires, snow leopards — against the evil Erinor. The evil one, who was filled with hatred, defied the Mother of All, and swore to become victorious one day, even after having his army destroyed.
Thank you soooo much, GPJ, for suggesting these books. Same scenario with this one. Fox Pictures will turn the story into a major motion picture and foreign rights have been sold to over 14 countries. This book seemed og most natural to me and was pretty fun to read.
My instinct tells me they were, and I have generally come to trust my instinct in such matters, but it is important to note that the chance does exist that year-old me could have been operating under an outdated set of standards and opinions and is, therefore, giving year-old me faulty information. Aug 13, Nazmira rated batle did not like it. WHY did they do that?! Even if it was 3 years ago Articles lacking sources from September All articles lacking sources Pages to import images to Wikidata.
This book was not as good as the other 2 books before this. Unfortunately, I found this concluding novel to be rather underwhelming and disappointing, especially after the epicness of the first two. Both books told two very different, very excellent stories that both managed to thoughtfully abttle mostly realistically deal with themes of war, responsibility, family, etc.
Sep 03, Erah rated it really liked it. The story of the brave young warrior-queen who faces impossible dangers is dedicated to her. But with Medea, I never felt it.
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