Impossible Creatures

Starred review from June 3, 2024
A boy with an affinity for animals, a girl who can fly when the wind blows, and a secreted-away world in need of saving propel this realms-roving dazzler, a trilogy opener from Rundell (The Good Thieves). When Christopher Forrester is sent to Scotland to stay with his maternal grandfather, he quickly makes for the only area forbidden to him: the top of a nearby hill. Meanwhile, in the Archipelago—“the last surviving magic place”—Mal Arvorian works to understand why marvelous creatures have begun dying and the soil is turning gray. Following a terrifying encounter and a near escape for Mal, the children meet, kicking off a valorous, island-hopping quest to uncover why the Archipelago’s magic is fading—a journey that has far-reaching implications. Along the way, Christopher and Mal engage with sympathetic adult secondaries and a cast of wittily rendered mythological beasts, including a cherished griffin and a watchful ratatoska. Employing plotting reminiscent of works by Ursula Le Guin and Philip Pullman, Rundell deploys fresh language, epic stakes, bonds both tender and devastating, and fierce kid characters. It’s a thoughtfully lore-informed narrative about the kinship of living things and the marvels of being alive—a story that, above all, takes children seriously. Light-tinged illustrations from Mackenzie (The 66th Rebirth of Frankie Caridi) include a map and bestiary. Cover art portrays the child protagonists with pale skin. Ages 10–up. Agent: Peter Knapp, Park & Fine Literary.

Starred review from July 1, 2024
Two young people save the world and all the magic in it in this series opener. When tall, dark-haired, white-skinned Christopher Forrester goes to stay with his grandfather in Scotland, he ventures to the top of a forbidden hill and discovers astonishing magical creatures. His grandfather explains that Christopher's family are guardians of the "way through" to the Archipelago, where the Glimourie Tree grows--the source of glimourie, or the world's magic. Black-haired, olive-skinned Mal Arvorian, a girl from the Archipelago, is being pursued by a murderer, and she asks Christopher for help, launching them both on a wild, dangerous journey to discover why the glimourie is disappearing and how to stop it. Together with a part-nereid woman, a ratatoska, a dragon, and a Berserker, they face an odyssey of dangerous tasks to find the Immortal, the only one who can reverse the draining of magic. Like Lyra and Will from Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials, Mal and Christopher sacrifice their innocence for experience, meeting every challenge with depthless courage until they finally reach the maze at the heart of it all. Rundell throws myriad obstacles in her characters' way, but she gives them tools both tangible (a casapasaran, which always points the way home, and the glamry blade, which cuts through anything) and intangible (the desire "to protect something worth protecting" and an "insistence that the world is worth loving"). Final art not seen. An epic fantasy with timeless themes and unforgettable characters. (map, bestiary) (Fantasy. 10-16)

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Starred review from August 1, 2024

Gr 3-7-An immersive low fantasy in a similar vein to The Chronicles of Narnia, this novel begins with a boy named Christopher who saves a griffin named Gelifen from drowning. Upon seeing the griffin, his grandfather tells him that Christopher is the guardian of the Archipelago: a wondrous world hidden within this one teeming with impossible creatures such as dragons, unicorns, and manticores. However, the creatures are dying. In order to save them and the Archipelago, Christopher goes with Mal, Gelifen's owner, to see why that world is dying and if they can save it. From start to finish, readers embark on a dragon ride with many emotional highs and lows. Both main and supporting characters are fleshed out, making it easy to empathize with them, and character development is enhanced by intense action scenes. Even though the cover is sweet, do not be fooled: Rundell is the George R.R. Martin of middle grade fantasy. Do not give to children who are sensitive to the deaths of beloved characters. Violence occurs throughout the story, but it is never explicit or gratuitous. Though the book will evoke sadness, readers will also be left with some hope. VERDICT A quintessential fantasy that will delight readers of all ages who can handle intense storylines; this will circulate well in public and school libraries alike.-Wilsinia Ocasio

Copyright 2024 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Starred review from August 1, 2024
Grades 3-7 *Starred Review* Impossible ExpectationsRundell's new middle-grade fantasy hearkens back to the genre's classicsIt feels like, every year, one publisher or another claims to have discovered the Chosen One: the next world-shattering middle-grade fantasy in the tradition of His Dark Materials, Percy Jackson, and, of course, Harry Potter. Fortunately, that particular status can only be bestowed over the course of time by actual readers--not marketing campaigns, trade reviews, or even a slew of awards--and while it's much too soon to compare Rundell's new series starter to its luminous ancestors, it's hard to deny that it does kindle some of the secret fire that connects the classics.Impossible Creatures is a quintessential portal fantasy, and readers will be transported even before the first page, as they're greeted by Allyn's beautifully rendered map of the Archipelago, a magically concealed consortium of islands that is home to all the fantastical creatures of myth. Short, punchy opening chapters alternate between the book's two young leads: Christopher, a boy from our own mundane ""Otherlands"" who learns he's a descendent of the guardians of ""the way between worlds,"" and Mal of the magical isles, an orphan unaware of the murderer on her trail. Of course, the two tweens inevitably cross paths and, along with a merry band of seafaring adventurers, join forces to save the last griffin--and all the mysteriously fading magic of the Archipelago.There's a comforting familiarity to Rundell's fantasy world, promising huge kid appeal and easily tying the work to the canon. As the plot speeds along, taking readers on a whirlwind tour of various islands and their inhabitants, readers will meet several recognizable beasts (dragons, unicorns, phoenixes, sphinxes) as well as many less familiar (ratatoskas, karkadanns, kludde, al-mirajes), made more real by Mackenzie's interstitial art (finals not seen) and a back matter bestiary illustrated by Allyn. The tidy geological structure of the Archipelago likewise brings a cozy organization to prospective explorers: each island promises something new, be it a beauty or terror, and what child won't yearn to discover their own way between worlds and island-hop from one adventure to the next?Fantasy fans will also recognize many tropes (the orphan hero, the unbeatable weapon, the world-spanning quest), plus more subtle parallels to the likes of Lewis, Tolkien, and Pullman. These are another source of familiarity, but what sets this work apart from its contemporary counterparts are the enchanting fantastical concepts, which bring fresh life to the genre. Mal wears a long-tailed coat that allows her to soar on the wind, a stunningly poetic device. The Archipelago itself is tied to a being called the Immortal, who is always reincarnated in a new body, always retaining their memories--until a century ago, that is, when the Immortal took a potion of forgetting, and their identity was subsequently lost.In a relatively slim page count, Rundell covers a lot of ground (and sea). The Archipelago is introduced with sweeping scope, but the brisk chapters typically feature one segment of the heroes' ever-branching quest, offering only short stints on each island and not allowing for much depth of setting. Similarly, Christopher and Mal, while likable, feel a bit lacking in development, thanks to a focus on plot and a shifting narrative point of view that tends to keep its distance. And yet! These choices also grant the novel a wonderfully fairy-tale feel, and it's in the tone and the telling that this book finds its deepest magic. A true sense of wonder is unlocked, and Rundell's prose is the key, operating...

September 1, 2024
When Christopher finds a wounded baby griffin in a Scottish lake, his grandfather reveals that he is (and Christopher will be, when he comes of age) a guardian of the "waybetween" to an archipelago where the creatures of myth still live. Then Mal, a citizen of the Archipelago and the target of a deranged murderer, arrives in Christopher's world to reclaim her griffin, and Christopher chooses to go back to the Archipelago with her to protect her. There they chance upon Fidens Nighthand and the crew of the Neverfear. Nighthand is a Berserker sworn to protect the Immortal, the only being who can tend the source of the ancient magic upon which all creatures of myth depend. But a century ago the Immortal took a potion to forget the pain of existence, and every Immortal incarnated since then doesn't know their own fate. Suggestions that Mal is more than she appears to be grow into a plot of resolute earnestness, where the characters serve a noble purpose that binds them into a closely knit ensemble. Rundell successfully pulls off a powerful drama filled with self-sacrifice and great-heartedness and achieves full reader buy-in. Epic and interpersonal elements balance each other out, and the fresh take on fantastical creatures, in such sure and capable hands (with Mackenzie's black-and white illustrations interspersed), is entrancing and refreshing. Anita L. Burkam

(Copyright 2024 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)

July 1, 2024
When Christopher finds a wounded baby griffin in a Scottish lake, his grandfather reveals that he is (and Christopher will be, when he comes of age) a guardian of the "waybetween" to an archipelago where the creatures of myth still live. Then Mal, a citizen of the Archipelago and the target of a deranged murderer, arrives in Christopher's world to reclaim her griffin, and Christopher chooses to go back to the Archipelago with her to protect her. There they chance upon Fidens Nighthand and the crew of the Neverfear. Nighthand is a Berserker sworn to protect the Immortal, the only being who can tend the source of the ancient magic upon which all creatures of myth depend. But a century ago the Immortal took a potion to forget the pain of existence, and every Immortal incarnated since then doesn't know their own fate. Suggestions that Mal is more than she appears to be grow into a plot of resolute earnestness, where the characters serve a noble purpose that binds them into a closely knit ensemble. Rundell successfully pulls off a powerful drama filled with self-sacrifice and great-heartedness and achieves full reader buy-in. Epic and interpersonal elements balance each other out, and the fresh take on fantastical creatures, in such sure and capable hands (with Mackenzie's black-and white illustrations interspersed), is entrancing and refreshing.

(Copyright 2024 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)