THE LOWDOWN:
As it has been since the Fates first decreed, each person has an arca, set on the earth when they are and which leaves when they depart. That one little item could be anything, from a mirror to a ribbon to a button on a coat. Most never see their own arca but it is out there, their biggest vulnerability, the key that unlocks the door to death.
My Da used to tell stories of tyrants who would seek out others’ arcae and turn them into slaves. For the ruthless citizens of the Roman Empire, nothing reaps more power than holding another man’s life in your hands. Still, others hunt the world over for their own arca, to posses it before someone with impure intentions does. Of course, there is an added benefit to protecting your own arca: as long as it remains intact, you are immortal.
Now tell me, what would you do if the arca of one of the most feared men of the Empire washed up on the shore by your home? If this pretty pearl caught your eye, and you were custom-bound to protect it? What if the man whose soul rests inside will stop at nothing to take it from you, even going so far as to search out your own arca to kill you first?
I’ll tell you what you would do. Like me… you would run.
FIRST IMPRESSION:
“Sing , Muse, of the three footsteps backwards, crunching the paper-thin ice of a cold, empty jetty. Of a man’s ragged breaths, ballooning in frosty mists from his blue lips. Of the sea lapping gently against the jetty’s wooden stilts, but yielding no relief, no smile of safety.”
—Paperback edition
SNAPSHOT:
Effie narrates her journey away from her gentle life on the Indigo Isles and off to a life-on-the-run in Britannia and beyond. Though the cast is small—Effie, her family briefly, her chaperone Hamish, the villain and his top henchman, and an Oracle are the only characters beyond random encounters—there is promise of more to come. Which is fortunate as there are certainly some graphic deaths in store!
The setting is extremely unique, at first feeling like a historical fantasy with its old fashioned villages and small-town living. Roman mythology abounds, with discussions of Fates and Oracles, and gods and goddesses. Then readers arrive with Effie in the mainland, where people are wearing cyberpunk-style outfits and talking on cell phones and listening to mp3 players. Effie rides on trains and planes, learning from her chaperone Hamish about the tanks and helicopters the armies use in battle. In that way, the audience is allowed a rare opportunity to experience the strange ‘age of technology’ alongside the protagonist.
While this is the first in a trilogy, the volume is slim and does not stand on its own. Effie accomplishes none of her goals, and new characters are introduced in the final pages—giving the story a sense that it is cut short. Readers hooked by the world will certainly be wanting for more
Appropriate for ages 12+. Minimal strong language, no sexual situations or drug/alcohol use. Includes a few intense scenes of violence/torture, and intense situations.
Deals with responsibility, faith, racism, classism, life and death, fate, and identity.
GET IT ON YOUR SHELF:
If you…
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Loved The Golden Compass
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Are searching for a quick, light read
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Enjoy brave, strong heroines
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Have ever dreamed of leaving behind your home for a grand adventure
THE ESSENTIALS:
YA Steampunk
Paperback & Ebook, 144 pages
Published April 15th 2014 by Limehouse (ISBN 1907536205)
http://limehousebooks.co.uk/books/thepearliad/
(Review copy provided by Melissa Tricoire at Limehouse.)