Customer Reviews

Lisa Star and the Solstice Academy

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

 

 

I really loved this story! Not a terribly long read, about 2-3 hours, but I found myself very engaged for the entire story, definitely worth the .99 price.

There were a few overtones of Harry Potter i.e. magic school, live in dorms, a lot of references to 1st year, 2nd year etc, small village not to far away, however, have to live somewhere when you go away to school and the worlds were really nothing alike character wise.

I did figure out the "bad guy" fairly early on. There are some subtle themes of what constitutes a free society, prejudice that could lead to great discussions with your kids.

I would rate this for 10 and older based on a little bit of scarey (a vampire like creature), a little bit of violence (a fight scene and a death that is not described) and a little bit of k-i-s-s-i-n-g :)

I hope the author continues the story of Lisa Star, I really enjoyed visiting her world and the interesting characters that lived in it.

I did find a few spelling errors and the writing could have been a little tighter but over all great job on the editing

This is a really imaginative story that is great for ages pre-teen and upwards. A little like Harry Potter in that students attend a school of magic and face danger but that is where the similarity ends. The story is about students with magical ability who come from both magic and non-magic worlds or fragments of worlds. The students are not all human. One of the most interesting aspects of the book was how different the worlds and fragments of worlds were and how differently time moves at the Solstice Academy versus time on the various worlds. The type of magic the children have is really interesting too. Some of the magic includes the ability to traverse large distances on a world or between worlds very quickly, the ability to conjure spells for later use, and the ability to pull anything they need or want out of thin air. The kids also face the typical romantic problems teens experience plus have to take a stand on social issues. Well worth a read if you enjoy fantasy. Looking forward to additional books in the series.

Light-hearted, entertaining story that transports you to a creative and nurturing, though dangerous alternative high school. I liked Lisa and most of her friends. Will definitely buy the next book!

We all have some ability that we feel sets us apart from our friends - we can find the shortest way through LA traffic, or locate lost items that our friends overlooked. Now imagine that for a select few, this was a sign of deeper magic - magic that is weak in our dimension but strong in others. And these few are gathered from all the dimensions to learn to harness their powers at a magical high school. This is the premise of the universe in Lisa Star and the Solstice Academy - a premise that is similar to many great works of fantasy and science fiction (Harry Potter being the the most famous and most recent).

It would be a stretch to call Lisa Star a great work of fiction - the prose is serviceable at best and often in need of pruning. But for the price it is a pleasurable trip to the sort of fantasy world that I would have loved as a young teenager. The relationships between the teenage protagonists are very believable, and the magical system is both innovative and interesting (and thankfully not overexplained). I found myself becoming very curious about the alternate universes revealed throughout the book, and pinging with recognition at the various fantasy novels either explicitly or implicitly referenced by the author.

In summary: It's not great art, but it's not too bad. There are no obvious spelling/grammar errors, which is more than I can say about some eBooks. If the author ever gets around to writing the further adventures of Lisa Star, I'd probably pick that one up too.