In other lands A novel

Review by New York Times Review

Emika Chen is a rainbow-haired, electric skateboarding teenage bounty hunter in a futuristic New York City who, on the verge of getting evicted from her ratty apartment, glitches her way into a massively popular virtual reality game to steal a valuable power-up. The book opens with a mock news story about the game's 21-year-old creator, the mysterious Hideo Tanaka; an appended correction notes: "An earlier version of this story mistakenly described Hideo Tanaka as a millionaire. He is a billionaire." Whoops. Hideo, impressed that Emika has managed to breach his system (this is also a metaphor), flies her to Tokyo in his private jet to compete as a wild card in the international Warcross championships and figure out the identity of a certain nefarious cybercriminal. The book is as visual, kinetic and furiously paced as any video game; Lu, a former art director for video games as well as the author of the best-selling Legend series, has quite the way with otherworldly action scenes. Each round of the game is played in a different immersive environment; special NeuroLink glasses allow the real and virtual worlds to mesh. One particularly vivid round takes place in an icy wilderness filled with glaciers, "shifting and cracking under their own weight," with monstrous animals frozen inside them - a white wolf with a missing eye, a snakelike dragon, a woolly mammoth. There's romance, a lost sibling, spying, a diverse cast of gamers, and nifty tattoos. It's "Gleaming the Cube" meets "Strange Days" meets "Blade Runner," and it's a lot of fun. If the Cliffhanger ending seems irksome, never fear, this one's a series opener. RENEGADES By Marissa Meyer 556 pp. Feiwel and Friends. $19.99. So much cool stuff but, alas, so little editing. Set in the Gothamesque Gation City, this first in a series introduces powerful superheroes and their down-but-not-out nemeses. Years ago, the Renegades (the good guys - or are they?) defeated the Anarchists, who have retreated to crumbling subway tunnels. Teenage Anarchist Nova (villain name: Nightmare), who blames the Renegades and their governing Council for her parents' murder, goes undercover to infiltrate them. But she doesn't count on an attraction to the enigmatic and hot Adrian, whose two dads are Renegade royalty, Captain Chromium and the Dread Warden. He and Nova debate the idea of vigilante justice and question whether Renegades allow regular people to shrug off responsibility for creating an ethical society There are dozens of characters and secret identities, and awkward phrases like "his pallor was ghastly pale" and "his face took on a look of exultation." It can feel like a too-long X-Men movie. But some of the characters' powers are superfun (creating tattoos and drawings that become real, controlling an army of bees) and when everyone learns everyone else's identities and secret pasts - presumably in the next book - well, Holy Surprise Party, Batman. WONDER WOMAN: WARBRINGER By Leigh Bardugo 369 pp. Random House. $18.99 Feminism is the invisible jet powering this literary revamp of the Amazon princess. Bardugo's version offers a new explanation for Princess Diana's departure from Themyscira. A young woman named Alia Mayeux Keralis is shipwrecked off the coast, and Diana rescues her. But Alia is a Warbringer, a descendant of Helen of Troy whose very presence causes conflict and chaos. If Diana can help Alia get to Helen's final resting place before time runs out, she can change Alia's destiny... and the world's. After a slow start (the somber Themysciran scene-setting and stilted, formal way the Amazons speak aren't much fun), the plot takes off, with a lot of action and humor. Alia, who is half Greek-American and half black, brings Diana to her country (When the duo magically land in New York Harbor, Diana looks up to see "a vibrant yellow torch held aloft by the statue of an Amazon, her stern face framed by a crown like a sunburst.") They team up with Alia's older brother Jason, crush object Theo and best friend Nim, racing to change the course of history Meanwhile, terrifying gods of war and chaos, as well as human soldiers, keep attacking. Nim is a delicious character - an asymmetrical-haircut-sporting IndianAmerican girl with multiple piercings and a wicked sense of humor. Bardugo makes her both fat and hot, describing her as a "sparkly, round-cheeked sparrow." As always, Diana's interactions with the Western world are a good time ("Is Google one of your gods?" she asks). And it's lovely that this is a hero's journey times two. Alia taps into her own bravery and Diana learns about sexism, racism and something the Amazons have always dismissed: the courage, resilience and ingenuity of mere mortals. RELEASE By Patrick Ness 277 pp. HarperTeen. $17.99. Every sentence in this gorgeous little novel feels perfect and necessary Ness, a Carnegie Medal winner, has said that "Release" is influenced by two classics: Virginia Woolf's "Mrs Dalloway" and Judy Blume's "Forever." (I know, right?) The book has the structure of the former - a vast amount of emotional action packed into a single day - and the hyperintensity, sexual heat and empathy for teenagers of the latter. Adam Thorn is 17 and gay, a conservative preacher's son trapped in rural Washington State. He wants to love and be loved, and he wants to feel understood. He picks up a rose at a flower shop (who will he give it to? His best friend, Angela? His ex, Enzo? His current boyfriend, Linus?) and pricks his thumb ... and as the drop of blood falls we're suddenly in a different world. There's a Queen, a faun, a vengeful spirit, a murder and a sense of encroaching doom. The action switches back and forth between the two worlds, both filled with grief and loss and mistakes. Gradually, it becomes clear that both narratives are about the power of a single moment to change everything. It sounds heavy, but it isn't - Adam and his friends are very funny, and seeing flawed characters trying their hardest to forgive and to grow is truly touching. Also, the sex scenes are so hot they practically set the pages on fire. Ness's writing is lush without seeming to strain: A bad boyfriend is "all neck and rage," Mount Rainier at sunset turns "an unseemly, intimate pink." In an era when young adult books often feel bloated and meandering, this focused, humane book is a joy IN OTHER LANDS By Sarah Rees Brennan 437 pp. Big Mouth House. $19.95. "In Other Lands" is at once a classic school story, a coming-of-age story and a parody of Harry Potter. It's hilarious and sneakily moving. Elliot Schafer is Harry Potter if Harry had been abandoned instead of merely orphaned. Convinced of his unlovability, he wields sarcasm and braininess as weapons. As the book opens, Elliot is 13. On a field trip to Devon, England, he sees a wall few other kids can see. On the other side: the otherlands. Elliot, a huge reader of fantasy novels, is thrilled. Alas, the humans and harpies and trolls and elves and mermaids and vicious red-eyed, virginity-obsessed unicorns populating the otherlands turn out to be perpetually at war, and Elliot is a pacifist. "Oh no," he moans, as a dagger flies by his head. "This is magic Sparta." But he has no reason to go home, so he enters the Border camp's councilor-in-training program. And he makes two non-nerd friends: A gorgeous elf named Serene-Heart-in-theChaos-of-Battle and a perfect-seeming blond human jock. Brennan subverts the familiar Y.A. love triangle in uproarious, touching, unexpected ways, and her commentaries on gender roles, sexual identity and toxic masculinity are very witty Elven culture, for instance, views men as the weaker sex. "A true gentleman's heart is as sacred as a temple, and as easily crushed as a flower," Serene informs Elliot. When another elf tells him, "I was saddened to hear Serene had launched a successful attack on the citadel of your virtue," Elliot assures her, "The citadel was totally into surrendering." Best of all, over four years in the otherlands, Elliot grows from a defensive, furious, grieving child into a diplomatic, kind, menschy hero. MARJORiE ingall is a columnist for Tablet and the author of "Mamaleh Knows Best: What Jewish Mothers Do to Raise Successful, Creative, Empathetic, Independent Children."

Copyright (c) The New York Times Company [August 30, 2019]

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Review by Booklist Review

Irritable and annoying, 13-year-old Elliot Schafer becomes the unlikely protagonist of Brennan's novel after receiving an invitation to attend a unique school in the magical realm, which is protected from the real world by an invisible wall that few can see. There he spends the next four years learning about elves, mermaids, trolls, treaties, and falling in love. This is a school story for older youth, with freewheeling (but not explicit) sexuality, a dedicated pacifist as a main character, and slightly cynical humor that masks great heart. Elliot is a disgruntled Harry Potter in a world where magic exists in enhanced mental and physical abilities rather than spell casting. Brennan turns stereotypes upside down: elves view men as the delicate flowers, and the shining blond hero is a shy, half-breed boy conflicted since birth. Elliot's coming-of-age is for Potter graduates, ready to move into the adult world. Try it with Terry Pratchett books for the unique tone, Maggie Stiefvater's Raven Cycle, or go retro with William Goldman's The Princess Bride (1973).--Welch, Cindy Copyright 2017 Booklist

From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.

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Review by Publisher's Weekly Review

Elliot Schafer is a small-for-his-age 13-year-old who is prone to being bullied-largely due to his personality, which slots somewhere between insufferable know-it-all and sarcastic jackass. When Elliot's class travels to a "random field in Devon, England" for a supposed scholarship test, he instead winds up in a strange world known as the Borderlands, which are filled with elves, mermaids, and other creatures. So begins Brennan's hilarious, irreverent, and multilayered coming-of-age fantasy, set over several years. Elliot quickly befriends (and falls for) Serene, a fierce elven warrior, and arranges a reluctant truce with Luke Sunborn, the son of one of the Borderland's founding families. All three-along with every young person there-are training in war or as councilors, charged with protecting the fragile barrier with the human world. Amid shifting relationships, the threat of war, and substantial growth among the characters, Elliot's razor-edged wit and general inability to keep his mouth shut make for blissfully entertaining reading. Smart explorations of gender stereotypes, fluid sexuality, and awkward romance only add to the depth and delight of this glittering contemporary fantasy. Ages 13-up. Agent: Kristin Nelson, Nelson Literary. (Aug.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.

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Review by Horn Book Review

English human boy Elliot uses his intelligence, staunch pacifism, and proclivity for subversive behavior to his advantage while attending school in the magical Borderlands. Readers follow Elliot from ages thirteen to seventeen--and through various sexual encounters--in this heartfelt coming-of-age story. At times hilarious, Brennan's latest fantasy abounds with delightful sarcasm, inverted tropes, hard truths, LGBTQ representation, and challenges to gender politics. (c) Copyright 2018. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

(c) Copyright The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

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Review by Kirkus Book Review

Four years in the life of an unloved English schoolboy who's invited to a secret magical school and learns that even in fantasyland, real life is messier than books.If Elliot's story seems familiar, the impression fades quickly. Ginger-haired, white Elliot, an undersized nonpracticing Jew, is a total brat. When the 13-year-old crosses into the Borderlands and sees he's more intelligent than most of the other kidsand adultshe's quick to say so. He doesn't form a circle of friends so much as an alliance of distrustful mutual advantage. With Luke Sunborn, a flaxen-haired, blue-eyed, white golden boy, Elliot tutors Serene, an ethereally beautiful elf with "pearl-pale" skin, who's determined to excel twice as much as any other student. Elliot's initial interest in Serene is despicable; he aims to fake friendship until she grows to love him. But over the course of four years training among child soldiers, Elliot, unsurprisingly, grows up. His slow development into a genuinely kind person is entirely satisfying, as is his awakening to his own bisexuality and to the colonialism, sexism, and racism of Borderlands society. Only one human character, the beautifully and sparingly drawn Capt. Woodsinger, appears to be a person of color. A stellar, if dense and lengthy, coming-of-age novel; those with the patience to sit through our hero's entire adolescence will find it a wholly rewarding journey. (Fantasy. 14-18) Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

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Excerpted from Part 1 of In Other Lands by Sarah Rees Brennan ELLIOT, AGE THIRTEEN So far magic school was total rubbish. Elliot sat on the fence bisecting two fields and brooded tragically over his wrongs. He had been plucked from geography class, one of his most interesting classes, to take some kind of scholarship test out in the wild. Elliot and three other kids from his class had been packed into a van by their harassed-looking French teacher and driven outside the city. Elliot objected because after an hour in a moving vehicle he would be violently sick. The other kids objected because after an hour in a moving vehicle they would be violently sick of Elliot. Elliot ignored the other kids and hung his head out of the window. In a disdainful way. Then they arrived at their destination, which could only be described as a classic example of a "random field in Devon, England." Much like any other random field in England. "Why are we in a random field?" Elliot demanded. "I will thump you," promised Desmond Dobbs. "Zip it." "I will not be silenced," said Elliot. He would not be silenced, but he was feeling unwell and being thumped usually made him feel worse, so he stood a little way off from the others and observed their surroundings. The random field boasted a stone wall so high Elliot could not see over the top, and a woman wearing extremely odd clothing who appeared to be waiting for them. She and their French teacher had a quiet conference, and as Elliot watched them he saw money change hands. "Excuse me, did anyone else see that?" Elliot asked. "I don't wish to alarm anyone, but get alarmed, because I think our French teacher just sold us!" "They haven't sold us," said Ashley Sinclair. "Nobody would want to buy you." That did silence Elliot. It seemed so indisputably true. The woman in odd clothing "tested" him by asking him if he could see a wall standing in the middle of a field. When he told her, "Obviously, because it's a wall. Walls tend to be obvious," she had pointed out the other kids blithely walking through the wall as if it was not there, and told him that he was one of the chosen few with the sight. "Are you telling me that I have magical powers?" Elliot had asked, excited for a moment, and then added: "Because I can't walk through walls? That doesn't seem right." The woman had told him she was prepared for questions, but she did not seem prepared for that one. She blinked and told him to come away with her to a magical land. "By a magical land," she told him, "I mean a place that not everybody can see, a place with--" "With mermaids?" Elliot asked. "I don't need you to explain to me the concept of a magical land filled with fantastic creatures that only certain special children can enter. I am acquainted with the last several centuries of popular culture. There are books. And cartoons, for the illiterate." "Look," said the woman, "are you prepared to come away with me, or not?" Normally, Elliot refused weird propositions from potentially demented strangers. But there was the wall, and the undeniable fact that other people could not see or touch it, and this really was like something out of a book. Elliot did not think he would be able to live with the curiosity if he did not go. "Okay," Elliot had said finally, brandishing his phone in the woman's face. "But I have the number of the police, and I will have my finger on the call button at all times, in case you are a child predator." She rolled her eyes, but she let him keep the phone with no objections. Nobody else had any objections when it was explained that the strange woman would be driving Elliot back to school later. Nobody pointed out there was no sign of the strange woman's car. Desmond Dobbs said "Hurray!" "Do you have family who will miss you?" asked the woman while everyone else piled in the van. "Ha!" said Elliot. "That is a serial-killer question, and I refuse to answer it." "Any family you have will be told you were offered a last-minute scholarship to a prestigious military school," said the woman. "If you choose to stay. Will anyone be worried about you?" The van set off down the road. It seemed to get smaller very fast, heading toward the distant gray horizon of the city. Everything Elliot knew seemed terribly small, and terribly gray, and terribly far away.Elliot hesitated. "No." Once the van had disappeared around a bend in the road, the strange woman led Elliot up a narrow stone stairway built into the wall. They climbed and climbed, and when they had gone so high that they were surrounded by clouds, they walked through a shining hole in the wall and onto soft grass. Actually, the magical land seemed to be mostly grass. There were fields, more fields, several more fields, a couple of rough, round stone towers which men with weapons were exiting and entering. Elliot had cheered up when he saw a man walk by, books under his arm, who had long hair and pointed ears--there were elves--and dwarves--like from fairy tales, men and women alike with beards and carrying elaborately carved hammers. He looked around for other marvels. Mostly there were other kids. Some of them were quite big, and some of them looked no more than Elliot's age--he was thirteen, though everybody thought he was younger because they made cruel assumptions based on height. All the kids had lined up at different tables to be signed in, and now the kids Elliot's age were all standing together in a cluster waiting to be told what to do. Elliot turned to the woman who had led him here. Her clothing did not look so strange here where a lot of people were wearing breeches and buckles all over. He had only known her for five minutes, which made her five minutes more familiar than anyone else. Under cornrows that ended in a black coronet of twisted hair, her face was impatient but not unkind. "Is this the part where I get told that only I can save the magical land?" "This is the part where you get trained," said the woman. "Or not. You choose." "Trained for what?" Elliot demanded, but the woman had already strode off to be cryptic elsewhere and left him with the group of kids his age. He was slightly alarmed. The wall on the other side had been low, but carved with graffiti so he suspected there were vandals about, his phone was sizzling, and now this. It was so unfair. Elliot had not expected a magical land to be all fields--some of the fields had cows in them, and he was pretty sure they weren't magic cows--and other kids. Elliot especially did not like the "other kids" aspect of magic land. Elliot had "does not interact well with peers" on all his report cards. If the teachers had been more precise, what they would have said was "does not shut up well around stupid people," but that was teachers for you. And there were always kids who were stunned when crossed, as if they had expected that life would go their way forever. Elliot had already spotted the two kids who looked as if they thought life was a song. Practically all of the relatively few girls were staring at them. One of the boringly human pair of boys, the obvious leader, was tall and broad-shouldered, with golden hair, as if Nature had said, "No worries, buddy, I gotcha, no nasty tiring thinking will ever be necessary, also have a crown." The other had a bright vacant smile that someone, finding it empty, had filled with light. The blond guy was wandering around from kid to kid, talking kindly to them and taking hold of them by one shoulder with the patronizing air of a kid who thought he was as good and wise as a teacher. He knelt and spoke to one much smaller girl in a My Little Pony T-shirt, then rose to his feet and turned away, leaving her staring after him with shining eyes as he obviously forgot all about her: as if he were a king dispensing largesse to the peasants. The other boy was following the blond guy around, nodding at everything he said. Both of them looked entirely self-assured about the whole situation. Elliot knew their type. The blond boy looked like he would throw the first punch and the smiling boy like he would throw the second and the third, in eager imitation. Elliot mentally christened them Blondie and Surfer Dude. He peered around to the woods, where perhaps there were more elves, and to the skies, where he was almost sure he'd seen something that was winged but too big to be a bird. A cough distracted Elliot from his perusal of the skies. He looked down into blue eyes and saw that it was apparently Elliot's turn on the condescension rounds. "You should stop sitting on that fence," Blondie instructed. "Oh, I see," Elliot muttered darkly. "Even this is to be taken from me." Nobody Elliot was aware of had made Blondie the boss of the fence, but being tipped over backward into the mud was not Elliot's idea of a good time. He slipped off the fence and looked resentfully up at Blondie and, of course, his sunny shadow. He found tall people tiresome. Elliot scowled. Blondie frowned. Surfer Dude kept smiling. "Don't worry, little guy. I know this must all be very confusing for people from the other side of the Border," said Blondie. Elliot stared for a long moment. The moment grew uncomfortable. Elliot was glad. "This is all terribly confusing," Elliot agreed. Blondie smiled, relieved, and Elliot held up a hand to stop him saying anything. "I was so hoping," Elliot continued soulfully, "that somebody would come explain all this to me. Preferably someone who would do it in small words. And you two look like the small-words type." "Sure, what do you need explained?" asked Surfer Dude. Elliot rolled his eyes and saw that Blondie's sweet blue eyes had narrowed. He tilted his head and grinned. "First off, this," said Elliot, and produced his phone from his pocket. It looked a little bit melty and was sending off sparks. Surfer Dude took a step back. "You'd better give me that," said Blondie. "You could hurt yourself." He stepped forward. Elliot took a step to the side, and the group as a whole moved away from Elliot. Everyone else had discarded their technology when it malfunctioned, because they were quitters. "Nope," said Elliot. "It's mine." "I think it's about to go on fire." "It's my thing that's about to go on fire, and not yours," Elliot said firmly. "Now, why have all our methods of communication just literally gone up in smoke? Are we kidnapped? Are we going to be ritual sacrifices? Is there some sort of magical spell that destroys our ability to call for help?" A distressed murmuring spread across the group. Blondie looked around in dismay. "No," he said. "Everything's fine. Your little gadgets from across the Border just don't work here, that's all. They never have. You don't need them here." "Of course not," Elliot murmured. "The Industrial Revolution was a silly business anyway." Everybody looked confused now, not just Surfer Dude. Elliot raised his voice. "Are you telling me none of us are going to be able to play video games?" Blondie looked like he had his doubts about answering, but he did anyway. "I'm not sure what a video game is . . . but I'm pretty sure you can't play them here." One of the other boys, who, judging by his clothes, was from what Blondie called "the other side of the Border" and Elliot called "the real world where stuff made sense and phones did not explode," burst into tears. Blondie's head whipped around. "Oh no," Elliot exclaimed sadly. "Look what you did." "I didn't--!" "He seems awfully upset," Elliot continued. "You must feel really bad." Blondie did not look as if he felt bad at all. He looked, in fact, as if he was going to punch Elliot in the face. He took a deep breath and did not, which was a pleasant surprise and made Elliot feel quite cheerful. "Go on then," Elliot said brightly, and made an encouraging yet dismissive gesture. "See to the children!" Blondie turned and moved toward the crying boy, but he glanced back over his shoulder at Elliot, eyes still narrowed. "Not everyone who can see the Border belongs on the right side," he observed. "Being trained to protect the Border is a sacred duty. And my father says that some people are too weak and too concerned with their own comfort to fight the good fight." "That's fascinating. Run along." "You can choose to go or stay," said Blondie. "So I don't think I'll be seeing you again." "Yes, oh my God, I already understood the implication that I wasn't man enough to tough it out beyond the Border. Your attempt at an insult was extremely clear," Elliot informed him. "You're just making the whole thing laboured and awkward now." He waved Blondie away again, and on Blondie's retreat Elliot squinted suspiciously up at Surfer Dude. "When he said all that stuff about duty and protection . . .," he said. "Is this a military operation?" Surfer Dude looked pleased to be asked. "Yes. They train you up, those who can pass through the Border on either side, to be guards and keep the peace between the peoples in this land and those who may come through from the other. You learn how to handle all sorts of weapons, how to form a unit, all this cool stuff." "Oh my God," Elliot said in a hollow voice. "We're child soldiers?" He considered this and then said: "I need to sit down. I'm going back to the fence." "You're not supposed to--" Surfer Dude said, echoing his master, but Elliot was already walking away. He did take Surfer Dude's point, and he did not want to be pushed off the fence, so he meandered along it a little, moving farther away from the group, and as he did so he came in sight of someone else who was standing slightly removed from the crowd. She turned as Elliot approached. She was tall, slim, and strong-looking as a young birch tree, and as she turned her long dark hair spun out in the steadily blowing wind. It formed a trail of darkness, touched by autumn leaves twined around her tresses: her pale face stood out in sharp relief, and so did the pearl-pale curling points of her ears.This was an elf maiden. This was, bar none, the coolest person Elliot had ever seen. Elliot only had to look at her solemn face for one long moment, robbed of breath by both the wind and her beauty, and he knew. This was love: not the passing fancy he'd felt for Miss Tolliver his music teacher (in which he'd become confused by having a good relationship with an authority figure), or Simon Bae (confused by admiration for his skill in their shared art project) or Clare Winters (the guidance counselor had approved and hadn't said Elliot was confused, but Clare had turned out to only understand a quarter of Elliot's jokes, so she'd been confused all the time). Elliot wasn't confused now, looking into those clear eyes, at once dark and bright like pools in a deep forest. He tried to collect himself. Now was no time to stare like a hypnotized sheep. Now was the time to woo. He had not seen any other elven girls in the whole camp. So clearly she was defying conservative elven customs by coming here, brave and alone and the victim of cruel oppression. Elliot's heart went out to her. She was probably feeling scared and shy. "Hello," said the beautiful elven maid. "I was just thinking, and I mean no offence, but--how can any fighting force crowded with the softer sex hope to prevail in battle?" "Huh?" said Elliot brilliantly. "The softer what?" "I refer to men," said the elf girl. "Naturally I was aware the Border guard admitted men, and I support men in their endeavor to prove they are equal to women, but their natures are not warlike, are they?" Elliot offered, after a long pause: "I don't enjoy fighting." She favored him with a slow smile, like dawn light spreading on water. "Very natural." "In fact," Elliot confessed, encouraged, "I never fight." "You should not have to," she said. "There should always be a woman ready to protect a man in need. I take it that you are bound for the council course then?" "I don't understand," said Elliot, and then he shamelessly looked up at her (taller, why was everybody taller?) through his eyelashes and confessed: "I'm from the other side of the Border, and this is all a little overwhelming"--and distressing? Yes, Elliot felt that he was definitely distressed--"and distressing," he added with conviction. "If you would be so very kind as to explain a few things to me, I would so appreciate it." Excerpted from In Other Lands by Sarah Rees Brennan All rights reserved by the original copyright owners. Excerpts are provided for display purposes only and may not be reproduced, reprinted or distributed without the written permission of the publisher.

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