DECEMBER 2010 - AudioFile
Jeffrey Cummings immerses listeners in the fantastical life of 19-year-old Finnikin, whose world was turned upside down 10 years earlier when the royal family was brutally murdered and the population scattered. Cummings dramatizes Finnikin’s passion in his dialogues with Evanjalin, the prophetic novice in his care. At the same time, Cummings conveys Evanjalin’s secretive, determined nature. Listeners will feel the powerful connection between these two characters in Cummings’s electric delivery. He develops the minor characters just as strongly and superbly projects the plot’s tension and themes of guilt and revenge. All these strengths add to the characterizations of the two protagonists and give verisimilitude to the portrait of a land being held in the grip of darkness and looking for redemption. S.W. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award © AudioFile 2010, Portland, Maine
Publishers Weekly
In her first fantasy work, Printz Award–winner Marchetta (Jellicoe Road) spins a sprawling yet intimate tale about a doomed kingdom and its struggle for reclamation. Years ago, Lumatere’s royal family was brutally murdered, an imposter king placed on the throne, and a curse levied on the land, forever locking it away from the rest of the land of Skuldenore, with many of its inhabitants cast out to the winds. Finnikin has spent the decade after Lumatere’s fall traveling, collecting stories of his scattered people and trying to ease their plight. Then he and his mentor are called to safeguard Evanjalin, an enigmatic young woman who claims to know the location of Lumatere’s long-missing heir, who can break the curse and bring the exiles home. As Finnikin and Evanjalin seek to reunite Lumatere’s far-flung people and restore their land, they face betrayals, horrors, and ethical crises. Magic, romance, intrigue, and adventure all play their parts as this dense, intricate epic unfolds, and flawed, memorable heroes fight for their kingdom’s redemption. Ages 14–up. (Feb.)
Kirkus Reviews
Cursed by a dying wise woman, the land of Lumatere waits for its lost heir to open the walled gates and free the population from a depraved and predatory usurper who killed their royal family. Finnikin of the Rock, his mentor Sir Topher and the mysterious novice Evanjalin trek through a variety of kingdoms (two maps are included, for which readers will be grateful) freeing exiled leaders and accumulating an army. Standard fantasy characters people this book, but they develop in surprising, non-stock ways. Finnikin, the hero, surprises with contradictions: A linguist, a scholar and a sometime diplomat, he's also warrior, leader and barely reformed hothead. Although it's a long story, fantasy readers will enjoy the rousing and complex plot, filled with political intrigue and frequent red herrings and dotted with abductions, arrests and close escapes from a variety of dangers. Buy it for lovers of Marchetta's school stories, but its true audience is readers of fantasies like Kristin Cashore's Graceling (2008) and Christopher Paolini's Inheritance series. (Fantasy. 14 & up)
School Library Journal
Gr 8 Up—Before the "five days of the unspeakable," Finnikin's homeland of Lumatere was a peaceful and plentiful kingdom. Then the royal family was murdered and a puppet regime rose to power. The people were divided: some escaped into exile in the other kingdoms of Skuldenore, while the rest were trapped inside a curse shrouding the kingdom walls. A decade later, Finnikin and his guardian roam the land recording stories and trying to improve conditions for the exiles. A beguiling novice named Evanjalin, who shares the dreams of the people trapped inside Lumatere, joins their small party. She claims that Balthazar, the true heir to the throne, is alive. Rejuvenated by hope, the group embarks on a series of adventures in their quest to reunite the exiles and rebuild Lumatere under Balthazar's rule. With this novel (Candlewick, 2010), Melina Marchetta has crafted a world that is both fanciful and frighteningly real, with parallels to today's civil wars and refugee camps. It is a dense tale that builds to a stirring climax after Evanjalin's real identity is revealed. Jeffrey Cummings convincingly varies his voice to portray a range of ages, accents, and emotions in this impressive reading. Listeners may struggle to keep up with the book's many characters and to grasp the geography of Finnikin's travels (the print edition includes helpful maps). It takes patience to get acclimated to this mystical fantasy, but those who stick with it are in for a rare treat.—Amy V. Pickett, Ridley High School, Folsom, PA
DECEMBER 2010 - AudioFile
Jeffrey Cummings immerses listeners in the fantastical life of 19-year-old Finnikin, whose world was turned upside down 10 years earlier when the royal family was brutally murdered and the population scattered. Cummings dramatizes Finnikin’s passion in his dialogues with Evanjalin, the prophetic novice in his care. At the same time, Cummings conveys Evanjalin’s secretive, determined nature. Listeners will feel the powerful connection between these two characters in Cummings’s electric delivery. He develops the minor characters just as strongly and superbly projects the plot’s tension and themes of guilt and revenge. All these strengths add to the characterizations of the two protagonists and give verisimilitude to the portrait of a land being held in the grip of darkness and looking for redemption. S.W. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award © AudioFile 2010, Portland, Maine
