I haven't published anything for quite a while. (I was sick and
got a lot of reading done because I was in bed for two whole days) I finished
this book and highly recommend it. (The first comment of one of my friends when
I showed her this book was "Does this Finnikin dude summon rocks or
something?" I nearly screamed in her face, "GET THIS RIGHT, FINNIKIN
COMES FROM A ROCK VILLAGE SO HE'S CALLED "FINNIKIN OF THE
"ROCK"!!!")
There's actually quite a bit of story behind how I got this one.
At my library, the books in the Young Adult section are aimed towards older
teens more than younger teens. So I've got to be pretty careful of what I read.
But I wanted to read this for an awfully long time. Actually from around the
time I read Kiki Strike and A Mango-Shaped Space. I used
to dare myself to pick up the book and pretend to be interested and then
immediately put it back when I heard someone coming. But I'd dreamed of reading
it because the story seemed amazing. So now this time I finally took it in my
hand and went to check it out. And I definitely do not regret that decision .
Here's the cover. (I couldn't find the one I read so you can make
do with this one)
Alright, so the story begins with the downfall of the kingdom of
Lumatere. During the Days of the Unspeakable, the king, queen and all their
children are murdered. A man from a faraway land has named himself the King's
only living relative and has taken full control of the kingdom and its throne.
Under his hands, those who rebel are sent away as exiles. Those who remain
loyal are blind with fear for their lives and those of their loved ones.
Enter Finikin, our brave hero, son of Trevanion, captain of the
former king's army. Finnikin and his mentor Sir Topher, first man to the king,
want to get to the bottom of this mystery because they believe that the other
kingdoms have united against Lumatere. The most likely suspect is Charyn
because they have a long history of violence with Lumatere. They also believe
that the kingdom of Sorel is pulling strings behind the scenes. Sorel has been
at unease with Lumatere ever since the Seven Days of the Unspeakable when
Lumatere was left leaderless and was unable to trade goods with Sorel.
Finnikin has traveled to the cloister of the novices of Sagrami to
consult the High Priestess and receive her opinion on how to take action. When
he and Sir Topher ask for advice, the High Priestess gives them one of her
novices, the sadistic and sharp-tongued Evanjalin in hopes that she could be
useful to them.
Together the three set out to reunite the exile camps and bring
Lumatere back to its original state. But most importantly they want to find out
whether Charyn and Sorel are really behind this or is there a force out there
even more barbaric than Charyn and Sorel combined?
My thoughts-
A.W.E.S.O.M.E. And heartbreaking too. I almost cried when Isaboe
told the story of how Balthazar tried to save her from the assassins that
killed her parents and siblings. How Balthazar was trapped with the
silver wolf and it finally tore him to pieces. That was really sad and I wanted
to cry with Finnikin because he used that notion of Balthazar having survived
and being somewhere to keep him from losing his sanity. But then to find out
that your best friend really is dead and that you won't be able to see him
anymore, you won't be able to laugh together, you won't be able to dream with
him anymore is very crushing. I really loved Finnikin and Lucian's dedicating
the victory of the war to Balthazar. I guess they really cared for him because both
the fact that he was their prince and would inherit the throne and also because
they were his best friends and that they had spent a gret deal of time together
and had become awfully close to each other
Speaking of death, I believe the descriptions were somewhat very
graphic especially of the exile camps. I really felt bad for them, but I was a
little disturbed too. I think Marchetta's writing style is amazing, but I
didn't like how she sometimes went overboard with the descriptions. Sometimes
when they weren't needed. Like when Finnikin, Lucian and Evanjalin debate on
what to do next in order to rebel against the imposter king. Only because they
contemplate the state of the kingdom if they do not do anything and watch the
imposter continue his tyrannical rule. Then she brought back the conditions of
the exile camps and how dirty and sickness ridden they were.
Apart from Balthazar's death, there was only one part of the book
that really touched me. That was the story of the foreign prince who saw the exile
camps in Osteria. He tried to learn the words for Feed these people from one of the guards, but he
refused. Then the prince asked an Osterian butler and was provided with the
words. So this prince went to the king of Osteria and screamed in his face the
words he had learned from the butler. The king didn't listen, so the
prince threw rocks at him until he paid attention to the little boy. Eventually
he was dragged away by the guards and shackled in the prisons for thirty days
until the prince's officers could secure his release.
I really liked how Marchetta included that story because the
prince really cared for these exiles, even though he wasn't from that kingdom.
Finnikin comments that love like that should be everywhere and I fully agree.
You need to read the sequels Froi
of the Exiles and Quintana of Charyn too in order to get the most
out of this story. (I have Froi
of the Exiles right
now but it'll take a while to read it because I'm finishing the Ender's series
right now but MAN THOSE BOOKS ARE LONG!!! ((I'm half way through Speaker for the Dead and I wish it could end so I can get
to the last books)))
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