Immortal Reign: Falling Kingdoms, Book 6

Written by Morgan Rhodes

Razorbill

978-1-595-14824-7

391 pp.

Ages 13+

February 2018

I have avoided reading Morgan Rhodes's conclusion to her Falling Kingdoms series ever since I got my autographed copy at the beginning of February. I knew it would be stellar–it was– but, after five books, I wasn't ready to say good-bye to Magnus and Cleo, Jonas and Lucia, Nic and Felix and the rest that live in Mytica and elsewhere and carry Morgan Rhodes's story through every power struggle, magical conflict and romantic interlude. But, the time has come when I have to honour this final book, Book 6 in the series, and share with you the tempest that is Immortal Reign.

When last we visited the worlds of Falling Kingdoms, much deception resulted in the Kindred gods taking over the bodies of mortals to allow them reign: the fire god, Kyan, took over Nic's body; the earth Kindred took over Olivia's; the air Kindred went to Taran; and the water goddess took Cleo as her vessel. Because the ritual was interrupted, Cleo and Taran still have control over their bodies though Kyan is determined to remedy that by coercing Lucia to perform the ritual. But with the recent birth of her daughter, Lyssa, during which Lucia lost most of her magic, the sorceress is determined to do what's right for her daughter, including imprisoning Kyan back in his amber orb and reuniting with her father King Gaius and her brother Magnus. But all is more complicated as Magnus fights for his life after being buried alive, the king is assassinated and Lyssa is kidnapped.

Meanwhile, the Kraeshian empress Amara is set for her Ascension but, as much as she wants to rule, she is realizing that much of what she desires has been directed by her manipulative grandmother Neela. Still Amara has perpetrated far too many atrocities, against her family and others, for anyone to be her true ally so to whom can she turn? She intends to make things right, or somewhat right, but she has a lot of relationships to mend.

"I regret very few decisions I've made these last months, but I deeply regret how I've treated you. I've been horrible to you."
     Ashur gaped at her. "Horrible? You stabbed me in the heart." (pg. 57)

The dialogue is so clever, often draped in mirth, especially the banter involving Magnus, Jonas and Felix. Still the situation with the Kindreds is dire and, while Cleo and Taran fight off the powerful Kindreds attempting to take over their bodies fully, and Magnus, after freeing himself with some powerful dark magic, does all he can to keep Cleo safe, Lucia tries to regain her magic by stripping Jonas of his so that she might continue to fight for her daughter.

There is so much more to tell about Immortal Reign but  trying to condense a review of the book into a few sentences is near impossible. Morgan Rhodes's story telling is bigger than the worlds she has created in Falling Kingdoms. Her tale weaves in and out, backwards and forwards and sometimes sideways, and still creates a tightly-knit story of struggles, love and redemption.

We don't change. We are who we are throughout our lives. We can try other paths, other roads, but it never works. (pg. 294)

Immortal Timotheus believes these words as he says them but Immortal Reign shows us that change is possible for all.  From Book 1 to Book 6, all the characters have changed, becoming more sympathetic, less silly, less violent or self-righteous, more accepting of others and their mistakes, and open to possibilities they would never have accepted previously as viable or desirable.  I have grown to love each and every one of them as they've descended and ascended and transcended into the bountiful characters for whom readers have cheered and booed. (Check out some of the astounding fandom drawings of the characters that readers have shared on the Falling Kingdoms wiki, Tumblr, Pinterest and numerous blogs. These readers love these characters as much as I do.)

Morgan Rhodes could not have written a better ending to her six-part series. It's satisfying with unexpected elements and a frisson of the predictable (hurray for Magnus and Cleo finally getting together). She lead us through widespread rebellions and strife between nations, as well as personal triumphs and tragedies. And we followed. And we would do so again.  With Morgan Rhodes at the writing helm, it's a pleasure to accompany her on the voyage.

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If you haven't read the whole series, do check out my reviews of Books 1 through 5 for a taste of what you've missed and the order to follow to get caught up. You'll definitely want to do so.

1. Falling Kingdoms (2012)
2. Rebel Spring (2013)
3. Gathering Darkness (2014)
4. Frozen Tides (2015) 
5. Crystal Storm (2016)

The Darkest Magic: A Book of Spirits and Thieves, Book 2

by Morgan Rhodes

Razorbill

978-1-59514-761-5

426 pp.

Ages 12+

June 2016

When Morgan Rhodes began this series as a spin-off of her Falling Kingdoms fantasy, I had no idea that it would be even more complicated that that award-winning series. (Read the first four books in that series – Falling Kingdoms, A Rebel Spring, Gathering Darkness, and  Frozen Tides  – and experience the fullness of the high fantasy of Mytica and beyond.) In the first book in this new series, A Book of Spirits and Thieves (Razorbill, 2015), Morgan Rhodes took readers beyond that Falling Kingdoms world and juxtaposed it with our modern one, by creating a complicated story that fused the very best elements of fantasy and parallel worlds.  Well, hold on to your hats (or your cloak's hood) because The Darkest Magic takes the reader into darker worlds in which secrets revealed just beget more secrets and everyone is chasing after something or someone.

In Mytica, Maddox has learned that he is the son of the mortal Barnabas and the immortal Eva, though he’d always been raised to believe Damaris, who is revealed to be Barnabas’s sister, was his mother. After Goran, the henchman of the goddess Valoria, murders Damaris, they are more determined to seek out Valoria’s scribe to learn of her weaknesses.  Unfortunately, Maddox and company arrive just as the scribe, Alsander Verus, is executed by Valoria for treason. Unthwarted, the trio rescue his head which Maddox brings back to life, getting the torso-less scribe to help them by agreeing to reunite his head with his body. Together, Maddox, Barnabas, the witch Liana and Al head (no pun intended) first to central Mytica to seek help from Princess Cassia who lost her inherited throne to the murderous Valoria and then to southern Mytica where Valoria’s sister and nemesis, the immortal goddess Cleiona, regins.

Meanwhile, in modern-day Toronto, Becca Hatcher, who still dreams of her time with Maddox in Mytica, and older sister Crys are hiding out with their mother Julia Hatcher, aunt Jackie Kendall and professor Dr. Uriah Vega at the Yorkville penthouse of Angus Balthazar, magic expert and friend of their aunt Jackie’s.  The group is working to try to decipher the Codex, the book that Valoria calls the Book of the Immortals, in an attempt to foil Markus King’s evil machinations to restore his full magic and ensure his immortality as a death god.  Wait, it gets more complicated.  They realize that Becca, who learns soon enough that she is actually the daughter of Jackie and Markus, is inexplicably linked to the book, painfully wounded when Jackie tries to destroy it. Worse yet, Markus, who ensures obedience from members of the secret Hawkspear Society, is once again exerting control over Crys’s mom as well as upping his influence over rich bad boy Farrell Grayson–weirdly romantically involved with Crys–and putting Crys in more danger.

I haven’t even mentioned the surprising arrival of Damen Winter whose evil intents surpass Markus’s and whose appearance has mortals and immortals clamouring to action in both Toronto and Mytica.

Keeping track of Morgan Rhodes’s characters in Mytica, in Crys’s and Farrell’s worlds, as well as their storylines, is a daunting feat but readers worthy of the challenge will be justly rewarded. As Farrell’s dead brother, Connor, suggests to him, "The higher the price, the better the reward." (pg. 278) So it is with keeping the multitude of plots, relationships and secrets clearly separated whilst they start converging.  The Darkest Magic is a skein of magical plots that occasionally get knotted together but will ultimately be unravelled in true Morgan Rhodes’s fashion.  There is insight and humour,

     Farrell’s not a killer, she reminded herself over and over, like some sort of twisted mantra.  “He’s an asshole, a misogynist, and a spoiled brat,” she allowed out loud, “but he’s not a killer.”
     “Aw, come on.”  The front door clicked shut behind her.  “You shouldn’t give me so many compliments,” Farrell said. “They’re going to go to my head.” (pg. 331)

and lessons to learn about family and trust and obedience.

You are the master of your destiny.  No one else. (pg. 61)

The Darkest Magic is a full package, a very full package, and one that Morgan Rhodes delivers with poise and skillfulness and imagination. And there’s still Book 3 to come. Perfect.

#CanLitChoices: Alternatives to The Fault in Our Stars

The Fault in Our Stars
by John Green
Dutton Books for Young Readers
9780525478812
336 pp.
Ages 14-17
Rl lexile 850
RL 5.5
2012

The Fault in Our Stars, winner of the Teen Book of the Year by the Children's Choice Book Awards and the basis for a critically-acclaimed film, is a favourite novel read by teens across Canada and the U.S. The story focuses on the romance between Hazel, a cancer patient, and Augustus, a teen who lost his leg to osteosarcoma, who meet at a support group and bond over books, falling in love.

Themes upon which teachers focus lessons include the following:
• grief
• mortality
• relationships
• love
• fear

But we have a plethora of youngCanLit that can fill the same novel study bill and, of course, I would like to promote them here.  Each one of these deals with the same themes but in different ways and are all the better for the variety of storylines covered.

     †                    †                    †                    †                    †  

Before We Go
by Amy Bright
Red Deer Press
978-0-88995-471-7
222 pp.
Ages 12+
2012
Reviewed here

After visiting her dying grandmother in the hospital, Emily meets another teen Alex and his sister who too are dealing with death.

Crush. Candy. Corpse
by Sylvia McNicoll
Lorimer
978-1-4594-00627
219 pp.
Ages 12+
2012
Reviewed here

While volunteering at a long-term care facility, Sunny meets Cole and his grandmother who suffers from Alzheimer's.

The Death of Us

by Alice Kuipers

HarperTrophy Canada

978-1-44342-410-3

216 pp.

Ages 13+

2014

Reviewed here

Callie's reunion with former friend Ivy brings a summer of boys and, sadly, death.

Dying to go Viral
by Sylvia McNicoll
Fitzhenry & Whiteside
978-1-55455-271-9
251 pp.
Ages 12+
2013
Reviewed here

Jade's death in a skateboarding accident brings her back for one week to try to make things right for all.

My Beating Teenage Heart
by C. K. Kelly Martin
Random House
978-0-385-67042-5
288 pp.
Ages 13+
2011
Reviewed here

Ashlyn tries to piece together why her body-less self is watching teen Breckon who is dealing with the death of his younger sister.

The World Without Us
by Robin Stevenson
Orca Book Publishers
978-1-4598-0680-1
226 pp.
Ages 12-16
2015
Reviewed here

Though Jeremy and Melody make a pact to jump from a bridge, Melody chooses not to do so and is left behind to deal with that choice.

In each of the above books, the protagonist must deal with a death or imminent death of someone significant–a friend, a sibling, a grandparent, herself!–and must deal with that grief with someone to whom they are emotionally drawn. There is grief, romance, guilt and fear. What else does a book alternative to The Fault in Our Stars need? Absolutely nothing!

Leave comments if you have any other suggestions for The Fault in Our Stars alternatives or to select an age-old novel that needs refreshing with #CanLitChoices.

A Book of Spirits and Thieves

by Morgan Rhodes

Razorbill

978-1-59514-759-2

358 pp.

Ages 12+

June 2015

For lovers of Morgan Rhodes’ high-fantasy series Falling Kingdoms (Falling Kingdoms, 2012;  Rebel Spring, 2013; and Gathering Darkness, 2014) The Book of Spirits and Thieves will be especially welcome, melding the world of Mytica with contemporary Toronto and bringing together teen sisters and a book, a rich bad boy and a secret society, and a Mytican young man who wields death magic.  The Book of Spirits and Thieves is an intense multi-layered story that fuses the very best elements of fantasy and parallel worlds to make something even more enchanted and enchanting.

When seventeen-year-old Crys Hatcher opens a package from her vagabond aunt Jackie, her sister Becca touches the book within and falls into a coma.  Crys learns that the book had been stolen from Markus King,  and it was part of Jackie and Crys' mom’s payback plan for what he’d stolen from them, including Crys’ dad, Daniel.  Now Crys needs to learn all she can about that book and Markus King if she is to help her sister.  And that could mean reconnecting with her errant father.

Markus King, an enigmatic but powerful man, runs the secret club known as the Hawkspear Society that doles out murderous justice.  When nineteen-year-old Farrell Grayson whose seriously wealthy family belongs to the Society is recruited to Markus’ inner circle, he is tasked with becoming acquainted with Crys.  But society bad boy Farrell has other issues with which to deal, including his confused younger brother Adam and the suspicious suicide of his older brother Connor, a former inner cirle member.

Meanwhile in Year 15 of the Goddess Valoria’s Reign in Mytica, a young man named Maddox, gifted with the magic to communicate with spirits, is being exploited by his guardian/slave master Livius. They are both seized by Valoria who demands Maddox locate a specific young woman who possesses the magic the Goddess needs to retrieve a golden dagger stolen from her.  Though Maddox is unconvinced that he can control his magic abilities, a spirit named Becca (yes, Crys’ sister) assures him that he can do it, as well as help her get back home.

With Becca’s spiritual presence in Mytica and her physical body in a Toronto hospital, the contemporary world of Crys and Farrell is linked with the magical world of Maddox and Valoria.  How the two will converge is up to the skillful story-telling of high fantasy writer Morgan Rhodes.  In other words, there's a great story being revealed.  Within each world, young people are dealing with self-expression and understanding, trying to learn what strengths and weaknesses they possess, while navigating the treacherous waters of family and friendship and secrets.  It's pretty hard to develop complete understanding when secrets are being kept and deceit is the norm.  And questions about who has stolen what from whom abound!

Told in the voices of Crys, Farrell and Maddox, A Book of Spirits and Thieves provides no respite from action and complex plotting that are the trademark of Morgan Rhodes' writing.  There's a reason her books are repeatedly on New York Times best seller lists.  Look for this one there too.


*********************
BTW, a different cover of A Book of Spirits and Thieves is available in the U.S., if you see it and are confused by the difference.  Still beautiful, this second cover is more in keeping with the Falling Kingdoms covers, though I prefer the one that illustrates the melding of the contemporary world with that of ancient Mytica.