Customer Reviews

Heart of Valor (Wildworld)

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This book is the sequel to L.J. Smith's first book, "The Night of the Solstice." In it, four siblings come together to help the sorceress Morgana Shee, who is the only hope of their world's safety. I enjoyed this book more than the first one because it combines Arthurian lore, other legends, and an original plot, which is a talent L.J. Smith has continued to show in her more recent books. Unlike her recent Night World series, these books were more for children than young adults, and focus more on fantasy than romance. They are wonderfully simple, with an easy-to-follow format, but contain things that even adults can enjoy. Unfortunately, relationships and characters, especially the underused Morgana, are not explored very deeply, but this book is perfect for readers of any age...especially fans of magic and legends.

I read the whole book in a matter of 3-4 hours, I just couldn't put it down! I'm dissapointed that I could never (and still can't) find one single copy of Night of the Solstice. I have read Heart of Valor a countless number of times. L.J. Smith is the only adolescent author that I buy and read their books nowadays (I'm 16, but I started reading adult novels when I was 7). That is really something too, and I give all of her books that I have read great! reviews.

I liked this book a lot because it was very believable. I admire most of the characters, especially Janie, because they are very good examples, but they're not perfect. My favorite part was the trial before the Council and I think that particular scene was the most thrilling scene in the whole book, although nothing too gruesome or sensational happened. I loved the ending, although I cannot give any reasons why because they would give it away. However, it does a lot of explaining in the text, and I was a bit disappointed about that, because in the first book most of the explaining was in the dialogue. I appreciate this style more because it makes everything clear without boring the reader at all. Not that I think the sequel was boring! It is definitely one of my favorite books, but nonetheless, I like Night of the Solstice better than its successor.

I think that this book IS L.J Smith's greatest! I liked it because it combines a world of fantasy and magic, where anything can happen, and the Arthurian legends (my favorite) with the modern world, where magic is not believed in by most people. All of the characters are very real and unique, and serve a purpose in this exciting book. The fantasy element in this book isn't too unbelievable and overwhelming- it makes you think that maybe the story doesn't seem so impossible. I was actually disappointed after I finished this book, because I wanted it to keep going on! I know it is wishful thinking, but I am still praying for a third book to make this duet of The Night of the Solstice and Heart of Valor a trilogy!

"Heart of Valor" is set a year and a half after the events of The Night of the Solstice, in which four siblings helped the sorceress Morgana Shee prevent an evil sorcerer from invading the world through her house of magic mirrors. At the conclusion of the book, the doorways to the Wildworld were closed, the sorcerer was destroyed, and his ally Thia Pendriel managed to escape with the immensely powerful Heart of Valor, a magical gemstone.

All has been quiet since then, with the quirky Janie studying magic under Morgana's guidance, shy Claudia enjoying her newfound gift to speak to animals, and Alys and Charles simply getting on with their lives. But after what seems like a typical Californian earthquake, the children and the sorceress begin to suspect that Thia is up to something; perhaps trying to re-open the portal between the Wildworld and the Stillworld. Morgana hurries north in order to find her, whilst the children face dangers of their own. The park is filled with strange creatures, bizarre signs can be seen in the sky, and their house is attacked by groups of strange elementals.

With the sword Caliborn in her possession, giving Alys dreams of ancient Arthurian lore, she and her siblings hurry to find Morgana and help prevent Thia from whatever she's planning next...

This book and its predecessor were the first novels written by L.J. Smith, now best known for The Vampire Diaries and the Night World series, after she moved from fantasy to the supernatural-romance genre. Though it makes for an interesting read, it's clear that this is a first-time effort from a newbie author, especially when compared with her later, more polished, works. The most glaring problem is the narrative of the book; quite simply, it's a confusingly told story that's hard to keep track of. Despite pages and pages of exposition, we never seem to have a clear idea of what's going on or why, with a lot of capitalized terms thrown about that are virtually meaningless (including the Elixir of Days, the Mirror of Heaven, the Forgotten Gems, the Chaotic Zones, Gold Staffs, White Staffs, Black Staffs, the Weerul Council, the Golden Age of Findahl - the list goes on).

After conveniently disposing of the children's parents via an overseas voyage, the children do not participate in much of the action till over halfway through the book when they go after Morgana, and the events occurring in the Wildworld (when things should get *really* interesting) are jammed into the last few chapters of the book. The world-building is rather clumsy, with concepts and plot devices popping out of nowhere, and nothing properly explained. Perhaps a reader will be on more stable ground if they've recently read The Night of the Solstice, but ultimately `Heart of Valor' reads a bit like alphabet soup: muddled.

There was a good story here, but L.J. Smith wasn't quite accomplished enough to tell it properly. The recent resurgence of interest in her work means the republication of her older books, but it's a pity she wasn't given the opportunity to rewrite them a little as well to iron out some of the glitches. Still, fans of her later books may enjoy recognizing several ideas that she recycles in her other books, such as a dog attack that resembles the one in The Vampire Diaries, Claudia's ability to talk to animals being reminiscent of Anna Whiteraven's gift in Dark Visions, and the use of the name Thia in Night World (though with different spelling).

If in the last book you thought the name "Morgana Shee" rang a bell, your suspicions will be put to rest here. In the Arthurian legends that L. J. Smith mixes into this book, Morgana plays the part of Morgan LeFay *and* the Lady of Lake, set against the tricky and somewhat malevolent Merlin. It's an interesting re-working of the old myths, one that she successfully ties in with her own mythos.

On their own terms this book and its predecessor as rather sub-par fantasy stories, but for fans of Smith who hold an interest in the evolution of her writing, they make for novelty reading. She's obviously come a long way since these early days, and I enjoyed having a taste of how she began her writing career.

This title sounds passionate and dramatic. The whole teen romance thing is a bit tawdry nowadays and I think that this is what makes it more interesting. There is actually a boy/girl story in the plot and this makes the book more realistic as far as relating to real life people!

In book two, Heart of Valor, we get to learn more about Morgana's history (which is nicely mixed with history and legend), picking up where about a year after book one left off. We get to see how things have changed (and how things haven't) since the kids' last adventure. The villain is both someone we've seen before and someone new. (I don't want to go into too much detail with this book's plot because I don't want to give away too much of book one.)

Unlike Smith's other books, this is not a love story (which I am glad for). There are a lot of things I really liked about this book, the writing in particular is pretty solid. The story flows really well and you can't help but find yourself engrossed. Some characters are more relate-able and three-dimensional than others (Alys and Janie are both very distinct and go through obvious growth while Charles and Claudia don't actually mature very much over the course of the book), but all are interesting enough to hold my attention.

The only thinking lacking for me was some of the more in depth explanations about magic. It felt like there were things we should have learned but never did (like the rules of magic, how one goes about winning a staff, how WildWorld actually runs) and perhaps, if Smith ever intends to write another book, we will learn more. I can only hope she does because I really enjoyed it and would gladly read a third book.

This book being the sequel to Night of the Solstice, I was glad to see that it detailed a lot more of Morgana's past. No longer was she seen as the sorceress who had a very magical mystical-sounding name, but she was tied back to the Morgan of Arthurian legend, giving her a depth even beyond what Smith writes of her character.

We see a significant growth in maturity for the four main characters, too. Their personalities are much the same as we saw them in the previous book, but their adventures last time, plus their continued presence around magic, has helped them to grow and strengthen. It was nice to see characters who grew without changing completely, and remained familiar without acting as though the past never occurred.

This wasn't a spectacular novel, but it was a fun one to read nevertheless. It had good pacing, a good mix of calm deduction and heavy action, and would be a good read for mid-grade kids who enjoy a good modern-day fantasy story involving ordinary children getting to save the world. Teenagers and adults may still get enjoyment from this novel, too, though perhaps more as a fluff read than anything else.

If this book has any one flaw, it's that it takes trips to Exposition City. Crazy things happen, and when all is said and done, somebody has to recap and fill in the blanks with information that they have cleverly deduced somehow but that never actually gets a mention in the story itself. It ties up loose ends, certainly, but it makes for a weak ending.

Still, I can't say I didn't have fun reading this one, even if for me most of the fun was in the nostalgia of the book, reliving a few days in high school when I'd found a copy of this tucked back in the shelves.

What a great book. It is a part two of a two part series. The Night of the Solstice is the first book. It is about two sisters and a brother that go into another land through a mirror with the help of a witch that they befriend and the adventure never stops until the last page of the story. I could not put the book down, it was an easy read and you can follow the story even though they meet a few characters along the way. I recommend this book to anyone who likes action, humor
and happy endings.

I luved this book! It was another stunning example of L. J. Smith's great talent for writing , and it combined great characters and one of my favorite legends. keep up the good work!