Simon, Lucy, and Barney are excited to be spending the summer in Trewissik, a little English town on the sea. Simon dreams of being a captain on his own vessel. Barney
is overjoyed to be in Cornwall, the legendary site of Camelot. Lucy is just enjoying her vacation with Mom, Dad, and their peculiar Great-Uncle Merry. He's the one who
arranged for them to stay in the mysterious Grey House... and it's here, in a long-forgotten corner, that the three children find something truly out of legend: an ancient
manuscript that may well be the key to finding a long-lost treasure from the court of King Arthur himself! Soon, the kids realize they aren't alone as they hunt for
Arthurian relics. They've just become part of a conflict that predates human history - a conflict they cannot hope to win, but can't afford to lose.
Review
What is it about the British Isles that produces a disproportionate number of young adult fantasy authors? Just wondering... Anyway, this was a fairly good book. My main
complaint is that the enemies were too easy to recognize. Every bad guy is introduced as a greedy, selfish, and/or deceitful character, so I wasn't very shocked when they
were revealed to be allies of the Enemy. (It's a common flaw in books about the fight between Good and Evil, especially those with Christian overtones, that one can only do
harm if one knows one is doing Evil's work, and the servants of Good invariably can do only Good. It's also a common flaw in these books that one can readily discern Good
from Evil, that both paths are very clearly marked by their respective leaders, and any wavering is merely a crisis of faith or a temptation by the Other Side, because
life is conveniently coded like that. But, I digress...) The book also took a little too long to get anywhere. Otherwise, I must reserve full judgment until I've read the
rest of the sequence.
Will Stanton, the youngest of nine English children, is about to turn eleven - and his life is about to turn upside down. He learns that he is much more than he ever
thought, the last of the strange and secretive line of immortal Old Ones, and that he was born to complete a very special quest. Will must find the six Signs of power
before the Black Rider, agent of the Dark, gets to them. To win means victory for the Light against the rising Dark. To lose is to see the world fall into shadow.
Review
I wavered on the rating for this one for a while. While I enjoyed the idea of the Old Ones and much of the imagery in this story, it falls victim to the same problems
the first book in the sequence did. The bad guys are Bad with a capital B, and clearly identified as bad from pretty much the first time Will meets them. The quest itself
is so thoroughly orchestrated by powers of Light and Dark, which apparently already knew where every Sign was and how it was to be found, that I found myself wondering why
another Old One hadn't picked up the Signs long before now, or why the Dark hadn't found them yet. It's not like nobody knew where the signs were, so why was it so
imperative that Will be the one to find them in this particular year during this particular season? The Light goes to great lengths to arrange it so Will has to be at a
specific place at a specific time, having him escorted to said place and time by another Old One, dropped off, and picked up again right after finishing his mission. I
always wonder what would happen in these stories if the hero had to take a bathroom break and missed the exact moment he had to be at an exact place - would the universe
be doomed because of Nature's call? Granted, most fantasy quests have an element of prophecy and orchestration about them, but every single page of Will's adventures has
been so carefully dictated by others that it's almost laughable. The whole search for the Signs was so painstakingly scripted by Greater Powers that the idea that Will
wouldn't be at the Right Place and the Right Time to find the Signs never enters your mind. You know he'll prevail, because it was all laid out already. The Signs
practically found themselves. Will himself was the only one who ever really had any doubts in the matter.
(It was after reading this that I decided not to continue reading this series. There are too many other, less predictable books out there to waste further time here.)
When eleven-year-old Little Hawk set out on his three-month ordeal of manhood, as countless generations of Pokanokets had done before him, he took with him a bow and
arrow of his own making, a tomahawk from his father, and a metal knife from the white men. Like all children in the village, he'd heard of the pale-skinned visitors, but
never seen them. They were a distant curiosity, another market for cured hides, and nothing more.
Little Hawk never dreamed that, one day, a white man's musket ball would kill him.
As the worlds of Englishman and native mingle and clash, Little Hawk's earthbound spirit follows the fate of his people and of the Puritan-born boy John Wakeley, who
witnessed his murder. In life, they had met only briefly, but the bonds of friendship and hope transcend death itself, even as misunderstandings, fear, and anger threaten
to destroy everything and everyone they ever loved.
Review
It may seem odd to list a Fantasy as Historical Fiction, but the fantastic elements are largely a method to examine the real-life culture clash of 1600's New England.
Intertribal conflicts predate European colonization, but the arrival of the Pilgrims and other colonists bring disease, danger, and the ultimate poison of a mindset so
rigid and alien it defied native comprehension. Thus begins a slow-motion disaster that would eventually rob them of their culture, land, and (all too often) life. Little
Hawk and John give human faces to history. As the native tribes are not monolithic entities, viewing the future and each other with uniform outlooks, neither are the
colonists. John in particular learns the danger of seemingly simple ideas when expressed in the wrong place and time. Who are the bad guys, and what's the right way
forward? It's not always so easy to define at the personal level, as history's lessons are lost on each successive generation. The story drifts occasionally, but it
generally strikes a decent balance between history lesson and plot development, delivering some wrenching and beautiful moments. It can't help but be depressing at
several points, though there are hints of hope. All in all, it's a decent and memorable tale.
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