Thursday, June 26, 2014

Allies and Assassins by Justin Somper - OPTIONAL

Somper, Justin Allies and Assassins, 479 p. Little, Brown Company, 2014.  $18.  

Language: PG (9 swears); Violence: PG (non-graphic deaths); Mature Content: G (hints of an affair).  

The Prince (king) is dead and now as appointed successor for his brother, Jared is Prince of Archenfield.  He has a Council of Twelve to advise him, but he isn’t sure if he can trust them all.  If he doesn’t find his brother’s assassin, if he doesn’t find someone he can trust, if he doesn’t find the strength to be his own person, his own period of ruling will be much, much shorter than his brother’s two years.  

There are a lot of pages in this book, this is action and danger and betrayal.  There are some good bits of detective work – and there is a fine scene right at the end when Jared shows his spine.  When you compare this to some thing like Brandon Mull, however, it just doesn’t stand up.  Its ok, its good – but it isn’t great.  

MS, HS – OPTIONAL.  Cindy, Library Teacher

1 comment:

Ms. Yingling said...

I've been wavering on this, but since you reviewed about five other books and felt the same way I did about them, I'm going to go with your judgement on this, especially since it's probably going to be a long series like Vampirates. Thanks!