"He tried to gather her up in his arms, but at his touch, her skin charred and burned and turned to ash, spiraling to the floor. He tried again, and her flesh crumbled in his hands, revealing bone. He screamed and let go, and she fell."
Seph
McCauley, a 16-year-old teenager from Canada, has spent the past three years
getting kicked out of one exclusive private school after another. The big
problem is not his behavior, but a series of magical accidents - well, actually
more disasters. Seph is a Wizard, an orphan and untrained and lately his
magical powers are getting out of control.
After
causing a tragic fire at a party, Seph is sent to The Havens, a secluded boys'
school on the coast of Maine. Gregory Leicester, the school principal, promises
to train Seph and initiates him into his mysterious sect of Wizards. But Seph's
enthusiasm soon dampens when he learns that the training will cost him a lot
and that Leicester plans to use the power of his students to serve his own
goals.
Seph must
try to survive in The Havens, isolated from the outside world and plagued by
horrific hallucinations. He is finally succumbing to the demands of Leicester, when
he meets Jason ...
One of the
many beautiful things Ms Chima creates here, is the credibility of a completely
fabricated story. If I were to bump into Jack or Seph this morning, who would
tell me that everything described in this book is real, I would believe them
immediately. I would actually really like to believe that the whole story is
true. Unfortunately, the chances that Seph and I would meet in real life seem
close to non-existing. - sad face -
The change in the point of view in this second part of The Heir Chronicles is very interesting. In the first book we saw the world through the eyes of Jack, the
Warrior. In this sequel, we follow throughout the bulk of the book the events
that Seph experiences. At some point in the book Seph and Jack meet each other
and although it was at first very strange to see Jack through someone else’s
eyes, this is a prime example of fine writing. As a reader we know Jack and his
thoughts very well, but Seph, who is a stranger in Trinity, has never met Jack
and will therefore rely on the first impressions he receives. The same goes for
Ellen, we now get to see her from the perspective of a total stranger and not
that of a love-struck teenager. It makes Ellen a lot more robust and - OK,
sounds odd - more masculine (because of the Warrior thing...) The feelings and
thoughts that are shared with the readers in the first book give a depth to
these characters that not everyone immediately sees when they meet for the
first time. It's nice to see that Ms Chima is capable of creating an accurate
image of a character, that she has written with so much emotional attachment in
her first book, from a different viewpoint. Ms Chima is a master at drawing
beautiful characters.
The
surroundings and the situation in the school, The Havens, was perfectly
described and elaborated. Although Seph's stay at The Havens lasts almost a
year, it is never tedious or boring.
In the
course of this story some new villains are defined and introduced. This, of course,
makes it all the more interesting, because which of these bad guys will lose
out and which will return in the next book to make the lives of our heroes
miserable.
The
introduction of Madison and her special "power" gives a fun twist to
the story, a twist that I certainly did not see coming.
About the
ending of the book, I must be honest, I had seen it coming, but some elements
in the final scenario still managed to surprise me.
Another fun
fact: this cover and that of the next book, The Dragon Heir, were created by
Larry Rostant, the cover artist I have already discussed here a while ago.
Rating:
