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Review at MyShelf.Com | ||||||||||||||
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by Diana S. Zimmerman Diana A. Zimmerman has crafted a fine new fantasy series for children. The Calabiyau Chronicles chronicles the lives and adventures of the Fee or fairies in a land called Calabiyau. The first book, Kandide and the Secret of the Mists, tells the story of 19-year-old Kandide, a vain, ego-centric princess who comes to the throne unexpectedly as Queen of Calabiyau when her father dies suddenly. But her willfulness and rashness put her in danger, and she is injured by a lightening strike on the eve of her coronation. Though she recovers, one of her beautiful wings is maimed and she becomes an Imperfect. Most Imperfects are banished either at birth or at the time of their injury, never to be thought of again, except as dead to their loved ones. And, in truth, many do die. Kandide, however, is teleported magically into the Mists, a land filled with terrors and something else—another kingdom filled with Imperfects. Zimmerman's story casts the Fee in a rather different light than most of us think of fairies. She also creates a new world for readers to explore with some very nasty monsters, including those inside human-like characters. But it is Zimmerman's look at the world of physical disability that marks her work as something more than just another fantasy adventure story. It is a very unusual foil for human society and our own standards of beauty. I thoroughly enjoyed the story, and I know young readers will also. Though the main story is resolved in the the first book, there is other trouble brewing, and Kandide is in the thick of it with her healer sister Tara and mage brother Teren. The adventures continue in the next two books, Kandide and the Lady’s Revenge and Kandide and the Flame is Fleeting. |
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Kandide and the Secret of the Mists