Status
Available
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Series
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Publication
Publisher Unknown, Hardcover
Description
Two fourteen-year-old cousins are accidentally transported to the island of Elantya, site of ancient magic, vicious creatures, and fierce battles produced by a territorial feud with the sea-dwelling merlons, conflict between the bright and dark sages, and the cousins' own mysterious roots.
User reviews
LibraryThing member Shimmin
A decent YA altenate world adventure, easy to read and fairly pacey. The worldbuilding is relatively novel. You can see the twist coming miles off, but that's partly because it's being flagged up well.
A slight reservation is the handling of the other worlds. I found something a little odd about the
I think the reason it jars is because it's taking Earth people and their cultural background, but saying they're aliens. I mean, is Afirik basically a whole world that's one specific perception of Africa but with some magic? Is Irrakesh a whole world that's the Arabian Nights? They sound that way in the book. Earth isn't so limited. And if magic carpets and djinni are (in this storyline) tied to another world, then what about actual Arabian mythology?
It just feels strange because these could just as easily be other people sucked in from Earth, and by making them from other worlds that are (apparently) restricted to those concepts, it seems to restrict both the characters and the worldbuilding, while also putting an odd distance between the middle-class white Americans and the two non-white kids who are literally from other worlds despite being so obviously based on Earth ideas. I do wonder how non-white kids would find this.
A slight reservation is the handling of the other worlds. I found something a little odd about the
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other offworld characters and the presentation of their home worlds. You have a proud sultan's son with a djinn riding a magic carpet, and a tough spear-wielding dark-skinned girl from the wilds of Afirik. On the one hand, yay diversity and I quite liked the actual characters. On the other, there's something a little weird about this because despite being from different worlds, they are so fundamentally a mythical Persian and an African tribal warrior (thus also honestly pretty clichéd).I think the reason it jars is because it's taking Earth people and their cultural background, but saying they're aliens. I mean, is Afirik basically a whole world that's one specific perception of Africa but with some magic? Is Irrakesh a whole world that's the Arabian Nights? They sound that way in the book. Earth isn't so limited. And if magic carpets and djinni are (in this storyline) tied to another world, then what about actual Arabian mythology?
It just feels strange because these could just as easily be other people sucked in from Earth, and by making them from other worlds that are (apparently) restricted to those concepts, it seems to restrict both the characters and the worldbuilding, while also putting an odd distance between the middle-class white Americans and the two non-white kids who are literally from other worlds despite being so obviously based on Earth ideas. I do wonder how non-white kids would find this.
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Original publication date
2006