(pb; 2007)
From the back cover:
"Yul and Sylvie are once more at the mercy of the dark powers threatening to destroy them.
"Will Magus win the dreadful conflict that begun in the Stone Circle one Winter Solstice many years ago?"
Review:
Solstice picks up a week after the dark conclusion of Moondance of Stonewylde. Yul and Sylvie, both ill -- Yul deathly ill -- are barely recovering from the Magus's malicious greedy actions. But their suffering isn't for nothing: now the Village folk (i.e., Yul's "people") are getting to know the Magus for what he is -- corrupt, reckless and destructive.
As in Magus of Stonewylde and Moondance of Stonewylde, Berry keeps Solstice's pace quick (while ably drawing out the necessary tension), the characters interesting and relatable, and the dramatic elements non-clichéd. Solstice's ending satisfactorily concludes first storyline-section of the Stonewylde pentalogy -- I'm impatient to see what happens in the last two books of the series!
Followed by Shadows at Stonewylde.
Showing posts with label Kit Berry. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Kit Berry. Show all posts
Monday, January 05, 2009
Thursday, December 11, 2008
Moondance of Stonewylde, by Kit Berry
(pb; 2006)
From the back cover:
"The cracks are beginning to show in the apparently idyllic country estate of Stonewylde, a very special modern community in beautiful Dorset.
"Yul and Sylvie must defy the tyranny of Magus, who holds all the power. Nobody challenges him and survives.
"Now Magus knows Sylvie's secret, but makes a further discovery that puts her life at risk."
Review:
The Stonewylde drama continues, picking up day after the climax of Magus of Stonewylde. Yul's feud with the cruel, arrogant Magus (aka, Sol) continues, to a lesser degree.
Tensions between Yul and the Magus increase when Yul discovers that the Magus, along with Clip, owner of Stonewylde and Sol's kinder but weaker-willed half-brother, are stealing magical "moongazy" energy from his beloved Sylvie via magic-storing stones. Not only is this a moral outrage, but the Magus is greedy, taking as much of Sylvie's life-magic as he can. In doing so, the Magus is slowly, painfully killing her.
It's up to Yul, with the help of Mother Heggy, a Wise Woman with magical know-how, to save Sylvie from the Magus and Clip. But will they reach Sylvie in time to save her?
Berry's writing, once again, is chockful of drama, relying on natural, relatable, character-personality-based situations instead of adolescent histrionics. Reader-hooking passages are simply presented, yet the deeper import of the story, characters, and other writing elements are abundantly clear. The Stonewylde series, thus far, is excellently written, more memorable than much of its published competition, non-clichéd, and, above all, worth owning.
Check out this series, already!
Followed by Solstice at Stonewylde.
From the back cover:
"The cracks are beginning to show in the apparently idyllic country estate of Stonewylde, a very special modern community in beautiful Dorset.
"Yul and Sylvie must defy the tyranny of Magus, who holds all the power. Nobody challenges him and survives.
"Now Magus knows Sylvie's secret, but makes a further discovery that puts her life at risk."
Review:
The Stonewylde drama continues, picking up day after the climax of Magus of Stonewylde. Yul's feud with the cruel, arrogant Magus (aka, Sol) continues, to a lesser degree.
Tensions between Yul and the Magus increase when Yul discovers that the Magus, along with Clip, owner of Stonewylde and Sol's kinder but weaker-willed half-brother, are stealing magical "moongazy" energy from his beloved Sylvie via magic-storing stones. Not only is this a moral outrage, but the Magus is greedy, taking as much of Sylvie's life-magic as he can. In doing so, the Magus is slowly, painfully killing her.
It's up to Yul, with the help of Mother Heggy, a Wise Woman with magical know-how, to save Sylvie from the Magus and Clip. But will they reach Sylvie in time to save her?
Berry's writing, once again, is chockful of drama, relying on natural, relatable, character-personality-based situations instead of adolescent histrionics. Reader-hooking passages are simply presented, yet the deeper import of the story, characters, and other writing elements are abundantly clear. The Stonewylde series, thus far, is excellently written, more memorable than much of its published competition, non-clichéd, and, above all, worth owning.
Check out this series, already!
Followed by Solstice at Stonewylde.
Saturday, August 09, 2008
Magus of Stonewylde, by Kit Berry
(pb; 2005)
From the back cover:
"Sylvie and her mother come to Stonewylde, a beautiful estate hidden in rural England, and believe their troubles are over. Stonewylde is a place of standing stones and earth energy, an idyllic refuge from the modern world.
"But all is not quite as it seems. There's another side to Stonewylde, a darker more sinister side where brutality is rife. One boy understands why Sylvie has come. And why his life is now in danger."
Review:
A sickly teenage girl (Sylvie) with mysterious allergies and allergy-attendant eczema (unseemly-looking flaky skin) is brought by her mother, Miranda, to a charming back-country village (Stonewylde) where alternative medicines and "magic" take precedence. Societally speaking, Stonewylde is a throwback to an almost-medieval age, where feudalism is the rule; there are two classes in Stonewylde: the educated Hallfolk who travel between the modern world and Stonewylde, and Villagers, who live in relative poverty, and do most of the grunt work in Stonewylde. Sylvie and Miranda, unfamiliar with this older society, are slowly, charmingly, being courted into becoming Hallfolk by the Magus (aka, Solstice, or "Sol"), whose iron fist methods of ruling Stonewylde are hidden beneath velvet gloves.
Yul, fifteen, headstrong, and one of the Villagers, is all too familiar with the Magus's cruelties, as he is constantly a victim of them. Seems the Magus, like Yul's drunk, abusive father, has taken a strong dislike to Yul, and Yul can't understand why. It's easy to understand why Yul's father is the way he is; but the Magus is another matter.
When Yul and Sylvie meet, changes immediately begin to happen -- slowly, at first, but by the end of this first Stonewylde book (there are to be five in the series) no one in Stonewylde can doubt that dynamic, crazy changes are about to flip their social order on its side.
Kit Berry is a plain-spoken writer, ably balancing elements of fantasy, restrained romance, adventure, and modern-day tensions. No flashiness to her fleet-footed prose, but plenty of show-it-like-it-is descriptions that gripped this reader, and made me loathe to put it down for relatively unimportant things like going to work, sleep, or eating. The main thing that caught me was how real and multidimensional her characters feel: even her bad-guy characters are shown to be relatably human, with their own (often misguided) reasons for their actions. I still cursed at them when they did cruel things (and there's plenty of cruelty going around), but at the same time I also understood why the bad guys acted the way they did.
I'd hesitate to recommend this gem to tweens. There are veiled references to rape, more than a few references to sex (all of them tasteful, and relatively veiled), and a few scenes of whipping/torture that would pale in comparison to certain "torture porn" flicks of recent years (the Saw series, and the much-better Hostel series come to mind). All of these darker elements are justified by -- and necessary to -- the themes of paganism, light and darkness that run through this well-written, engaging work that manages to work on a personal, character-centric level, while telegraphing a story that looks to go "epic" soon.
Can't wait to read the next Stonewylde book, Moondance of Stonewylde.
From the back cover:
"Sylvie and her mother come to Stonewylde, a beautiful estate hidden in rural England, and believe their troubles are over. Stonewylde is a place of standing stones and earth energy, an idyllic refuge from the modern world.
"But all is not quite as it seems. There's another side to Stonewylde, a darker more sinister side where brutality is rife. One boy understands why Sylvie has come. And why his life is now in danger."
Review:
A sickly teenage girl (Sylvie) with mysterious allergies and allergy-attendant eczema (unseemly-looking flaky skin) is brought by her mother, Miranda, to a charming back-country village (Stonewylde) where alternative medicines and "magic" take precedence. Societally speaking, Stonewylde is a throwback to an almost-medieval age, where feudalism is the rule; there are two classes in Stonewylde: the educated Hallfolk who travel between the modern world and Stonewylde, and Villagers, who live in relative poverty, and do most of the grunt work in Stonewylde. Sylvie and Miranda, unfamiliar with this older society, are slowly, charmingly, being courted into becoming Hallfolk by the Magus (aka, Solstice, or "Sol"), whose iron fist methods of ruling Stonewylde are hidden beneath velvet gloves.
Yul, fifteen, headstrong, and one of the Villagers, is all too familiar with the Magus's cruelties, as he is constantly a victim of them. Seems the Magus, like Yul's drunk, abusive father, has taken a strong dislike to Yul, and Yul can't understand why. It's easy to understand why Yul's father is the way he is; but the Magus is another matter.
When Yul and Sylvie meet, changes immediately begin to happen -- slowly, at first, but by the end of this first Stonewylde book (there are to be five in the series) no one in Stonewylde can doubt that dynamic, crazy changes are about to flip their social order on its side.
Kit Berry is a plain-spoken writer, ably balancing elements of fantasy, restrained romance, adventure, and modern-day tensions. No flashiness to her fleet-footed prose, but plenty of show-it-like-it-is descriptions that gripped this reader, and made me loathe to put it down for relatively unimportant things like going to work, sleep, or eating. The main thing that caught me was how real and multidimensional her characters feel: even her bad-guy characters are shown to be relatably human, with their own (often misguided) reasons for their actions. I still cursed at them when they did cruel things (and there's plenty of cruelty going around), but at the same time I also understood why the bad guys acted the way they did.
I'd hesitate to recommend this gem to tweens. There are veiled references to rape, more than a few references to sex (all of them tasteful, and relatively veiled), and a few scenes of whipping/torture that would pale in comparison to certain "torture porn" flicks of recent years (the Saw series, and the much-better Hostel series come to mind). All of these darker elements are justified by -- and necessary to -- the themes of paganism, light and darkness that run through this well-written, engaging work that manages to work on a personal, character-centric level, while telegraphing a story that looks to go "epic" soon.
Can't wait to read the next Stonewylde book, Moondance of Stonewylde.
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