Skip to main content

The Battle of the Sun

By

by Jeanette Winterson
Bloomsbury, 2010. 388 pgs. Fiction.


Jack Snap, son of the pirate Roger Rover's housekeeper, is kidnapped at noon on his twelfth birthday, August 14, 1601. Soon Jack finds himself in the home of the Magus, an alchemist and sorcerer determined to transform the entire city of London into gold. Jack, it turns out, is key to his project, the Radiant Boy whose power must be joined with the power of the Magus to bring his plan to pass. When Jack's mother follows him to save him, the Magus turns her partly to stone and promises Jack he will restore her only if Jack joins with him to turn the land to gold. What choice does Jack have? But the Magus does not keep his promise. Only fear and uncertainty can keep Jack and his friends (the Keeper of Tides, Mother Midnight, Crispis the Sunflower) from defeating their formidable enemies (Master Wedge and Mistress Split--male and female halves of one bottle-born person; the dreaded Eyebat, and the Magus himself), but fear and uncertainty are plentifully available. Three-quarters of the way through this truly delightful narrative, the reader learns that it is the sequel or a companion volume to Winterson's earlier Tanglewreck, and that young Silver of that story will come back through the ages to help Jack. The Battle of the Sun is charming, memorable reading all on its own, but to know a bit better what is going on, best to read Tanglewreck first.
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Review: The Factory

By
The Factory By Catherine Egan New York, NY : Scholastic Inc., 2025. Fiction. 306 pages.  Thirteen-year-old Asher Doyle has been invited to join the Factory, a secretive research facility in the desert which ostensibly extracts renewable energy from the electromagnetic fields of its young recruits. But Asher soon realizes something sinister is going on. Kids are getting sick. The adults who run the Factory seem to be keeping secrets. And the extraction process is not only painful and exhausting, but existentially troubling. Asher makes a handful of new friends who help him with an investigation that turns into a resistance, which turns into...a cliffhanger! The Factory is a page-turning sci-fi with multidimensional characters, an intriguing plot, and refreshingly straight-forward writing. Egan weaves in detail about climate crises and social unrest, making the story's dystopian setting feel rich and plausible. With its sophisticated themes and accessible storytelling, I would recomm...
Post a Comment
Read more

Review: Fowl Play

By
  Fowl Play By Kristin O'Donnell Tubb New York: Katherine Tegen Books, 2024. Fiction 277 pages. Still reeling from her beloved uncle's death, Chloe Alvarez is comforted and confused when at his last will and testament reading, Uncle Will gifts her his African Grey parrot, Charlie. Charlie has a robust vocabulary and loves to make Alexa requests for her favorite songs, but when she starts saying things like, "homicide," and "cyanide," Chloe becomes convinced that Uncle Will may have met his demise by murder instead of a genetic disease, as was previously thought. Ultimately, bringing in her brother, Grammy, and Uncle Frank (and of course Charlie,) Chloe's ragtag and adoring family support her search for answers ---going on stakeouts, engaging in fast pursuits, and searching for clues. But as the suspects stack up and the mystery grows, Chole will learn that the process of death and grieving is complicated, and in the end her Uncle Will's words that, ...
Post a Comment
Read more

National Geographic Book of Animal Poetry

By DeeDee
National Geographic Book of Animal Poetry Edited by J. Patrick Lewis National Geographic, 2012, 183 p. Poetry In this beautiful poetry collection, the National Children's Poet Laureate, J. Patrick Lewis, has teamed up with the amazing photographers at National Geographic. The result is 200 poems about animals, all illustrated with stunning nature photography.  The poems are well chosen and include rhyming, free verse, and shape poetry. Some of the poems are funny, many are contemplative and all are nicely typeset on top of the full color photographs. One of my favorites is a shape poem about flamingos, with a photograph of a flock of flamingos which seem to be standing the the shape of a flamingo (how did they do that?).  Lewis ends the collection with a brief but interesting section about writing animal poetry.  This selection is sure to turn any animal lover into a poetry lover.
Post a Comment
Read more