The Ruby Key (Moon & Sun) [Hardcover]

Holly Lisle (Author)

Book Description

Age Level: 9 and up | Grade Level: 4 and up

Bestselling fantasy writer Holly Lisle brings us her children's debut with a lyrical, fast paced fantasy for middle-grade readers!

Mankind is Sunkind
And rules by the light;
Nightlings are Moonkind,
And rule in the night;
Or there will be war.

Human and Nightlings are never to meet, but when Genna and her brother Dan venture into the old forest at night, they encounter a Nightling slave who reveals a terrifying secret: Genna and Dan's village chieftain has made a dangerous deal with Letrin, ruler of the Nightlings, offering the lives of his people in exchange for his own immortality.

Editorial Reviews

From School Library Journal

Grade 5–8—Gennadara and her brother, Danrith, live in the primitive village of Hillrush and are surrounded by danger. Like other humans, they can go out only in daylight, and they have an uneasy truce with the nightlings, creatures of the nearby forest who only come out after dark. All are ruled by Letrin, an arrogant and powerful being who lives in a kind of underground fairy mound. Genna and Dan's father is thought to be dead, and the children are terrified of their evil Uncle Banris, who conspires to marry their very ill mother. When the siblings sneak out at night to milk sap from the taandu trees to cure their mother, they are catapulted into a series of wild adventures involving a young nightling, a talking cat, magic moonroads, and plenty of beasties and ghoulies. They must find a young man named Doyati to save their family and the villagers from death at the hands of Letrin. While the book offers enough requisite fantasy elements—a seemingly impossible quest, plenty of magic, poetic language, and brave young protagonists—the plot twists need too much overt explanation to ring true, and the overly complicated fantasy structure sinks under its own weight. The nightling is an intriguing character, but her facile ability to smooth over difficulties strains credulity.—Quinby Frank, Green Acres School, Rockville, MD
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

*Starred Review* In this strong opener to the Moon & Sun series, which is also a welcome first children’s novel from seasoned fantasist Lisle, 14-year-old Genna and her brother are swept into a tricky bargain with an otherwordly lord. Humans in the village of Hillrush and nightlings in the forest have held an uneasy truce for centuries. But when Genna and Dan meet a nightling slave, they learn the truce is meaningless: Banris, the village head, has struck a deal with the nightling lord, Letrin, to trade his people’s lives for immortality. The siblings and rebel nightlings concoct a plan to defeat their corrupt rulers, and Genna brokers a deal with Letrin that involves locating a nightling in hiding. The world Lisle creates is as distinctive and intriguing as any real place, with a complex history, well-developed societies, and a strong sense of magic. Many readers will find Lisle’s creative embellishments of fairy lore especially arresting. Binding it all together is Genna’s forthright, first-person narrative of the risky adventure, through which she remains steadfast even as her duties expand beyond her personal desires. Though one plot is resolved, hints of a possible romance for Genna and the promise of a larger catastrophe will leave readers clamoring for the next installment. Grades 6-10. --Krista Hutley

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Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 9 and up
  
• Hardcover: 368 pages
• Publisher: Orchard Books (May 1, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0545000122
• ISBN-13: 978-0545000123
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 6 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (16 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,577,585 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Holly Lisle has been writing fiction professionally since 1991, when she sold FIRE IN THE MIST, the novel that won the Compton Crook Award for best first novel. She has to date published more than thirty novels and several comprehensive writing courses. She is currently working on the second book in her Cadence Drake series.

Holly had an ideal childhood for a writer...which is to say, it was filled with foreign countries and exotic terrains, alien cultures, new languages, the occasional earthquake, flood, or civil war, and one story about a bear, which follows:

"So. Back when I was ten years old, my father and I had finished hunting ducks for our dinner and were walking across the tundra in Alaska toward the spot on the river where we'd tied our boat. We had a couple miles to go by boat to get back to the Moravian Children's Home, where we lived.

"My father was carrying the big bag of decoys and the shotgun; I was carrying the small bag of ducks.

"It was getting dark, we could hear the thud, thud, thud of the generator across the tundra, and suddenly he stopped, pointed down to a pie-pan sized indentation in the tundra that was rapidly filling with water, and said, in a calm and steady voice, "That's a bear footprint. From the size of it, it's a grizzly. The fact that the track is filling with water right now means the bear's still around."

"Which got my attention, but not as much as what he said next.


" 'I don't have the gun with me that will kill a bear,' he told me. 'I just have the one that will make him angry. So if we see the bear, I'm going to shoot him so he'll attack me. I want you to run to the river, follow it to the boat, get the boat back home, and tell everyone what happened.'

"The rest of our walk was very quiet. He was, I'm sure, listening for the bear. I was doing my damnedest to make sure that I remembered where the boat was, how to get to it, how to start the pull-cord engine, and how to drive it back home, because I did not want to let him down.

"We were not eaten by a bear that night...but neither is that walk back from our hunt for supper a part of my life I'll ever forget.

"I keep that story in mind as I write. If what I'm putting on paper isn't at least as memorable as having a grizzly stalking my father and me across the tundra while I was carrying a bag of delicious-smelling ducks, it doesn't make my cut."

Cheerfully,
Holly Lisle

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Holly Lisle was worth the wait., April 20, 2008

By 

Galora_K (Central NY United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Ruby Key (Moon & Sun) (Hardcover)

To my great joy I returned home from Texas with 2 boxes of books waiting for me from Amazon.com. I love to preorder! One of the books I received was The Ruby Key by Holly Lisle. I followed the creation of The Ruby Key on Holly's blog - Pocket Full of Words and have waited impatiently for almost a year since her last book Night Echoes was published.

This is Lisle's first foray into the world of youth fantasy fiction and she jumps in with both feet and splashed me from head to toe! Page one hooked me and Saturday was completely lost as I read the entire 368 pages in one sitting. Food? Who needs food? Certainly not me or my kids. Mom hung the do not disturb sign around her neck and parked it on the couch with the dogs curled up at her feet and totally submerged herself in the Night Worlds.

14-year old Genna is spunky and likable, her 12-year old brother Dan so reflects my 13-year old son that I laughed out loud and the Nightling Yarri was easy to love as she fought for her people's freedom. While written and marketed as youth fiction (ages 9-12) it easily kept this 35 year old mother captivated from beginning to end. I happily recognized some of the snippets Lisle posted on her blog during the writing process which is kind of neat too.

As always her world is superbly created and well fleshed out. Her villains range from hard to hate to tough to love and this adds to the overall realness of her world. Even side characters are given enough personality that they are integral to the story and not simply fillers helping to increase word count. The talking cat has such a huge personality I wonder if he could carry his own story in this series.

Speaking of series, it's my understanding this is part of a trilogy but the story was wrapped up in such a way that you felt like you were finished and not left hanging. But there were enough doors left open so that you were left looking forward to the next book in the series (The Silver Door).

All in all a fantastic read by an amazing author. My only regret? I finished it in one day and now have to wait until June for Hawkspar. Thank goodness I already have it on preorder.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars For readers from 9 to 90..., May 6, 2008

By 

R. Kyle (USA) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Ruby Key (Moon & Sun) (Hardcover)

The "Harry Potter" series created a new market for young adult books that have inspired the best authors from fantasy, mystery, and other genres to write for the 9-12 market. Now, Holly Lisle has entered this auspicious group with a trilogy beginning with "The Ruby Key."

Her premise is that humankind only ventures forth by day. Should any go about by night, they are subject to the nightlings, elven creatures with magic who would enslave or kill them:

Mankind is Sunkind
And rules by the light;
Sunrise to sunset,
No less, and no more.
Nightlings are moonkind
And rule in the night;
Sun's set to sunrise,
Or there will be war.

But, young Genna, (14), and Dan, (12) of the village Highrush are out after dark the only night they can be. This is the night that the humans give their offerings to the nightlings. They give their best and in return, the nightlings give them trinkets and baubles.

The sibs have risked being taken as slaves by the nightlings to save their mother. They've made their offerings quickly and are sneaking out to secure some sap from the magical taandu tree, which they hope will cure their Mama, who has fallen ill. They have already lost their father, the former caer of the village, and fear that he is dead.

As they are attempting to gather the life-giving sap, they encounter a nightling girl who tells them a tale of treachery. It seems, their "Uncle Banris" who's taken over the job as Highrush's Caer since their father disappeared has made a deal with the Nightling leader, Kai Letrin.

Banris wants to be immortal and he doesn't care who he kills to get there. The sickness, or saku, that is effecting their village and their mother, is a result of this deal. Banris isn't quite immortal yet--he must wed their mother and kill their whole family to achieve his life.

It's up to young Genna and Dan to make a new deal with the Kai to save their family and their village. They are told by their nightling ally that Letrin will ask for something impossible, but not to worry--the rebel nightlings will give them aid. All the nightlings ask of Dan and Genna in exchange for this help is to ask for the Ruby Key.

Genna manages to secure the deal she sought. All she has to do is find one person, the child Doyati, and return him to the Kai by the dark of the moon.

What the Kai didn't tell them was that they'd have to learn to travel on the moonroads, magical roads that can take you anywhere, if you know how to manage them, face a warrior bard, the blind hunt, a dire worm, and other adversaries....

But, they will have help. The young nightling girl will aid them as much as she can--and a talking cat will come to guide them.

As always, Holly Lisle crafts a story with gem-like beauty and precision of phrase that will keep anyone from 9 to 90 reading late into the the night.

Rebecca Kyle, May 2008

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Captivating!, April 24, 2008

By 

Kate Rodgers - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Ruby Key (Moon & Sun) (Hardcover)

Though at first glance this book seems like a YA book, it is easily so much more than that. The themes Holly has woven into her magical tale, themes of love of family and community, duty, honor, and compassion know no age limits. You're compelled to read on and on, to find out how three children with the weights of two opposing societies rest on their young shoulders will succeed. Danger lurks around every corner and on every moonroad, but with the help of a snarky cat they keep trudging forward, hoping against hope that their quest is not impossible.

To me its part fairy tale, part Spirited Away told in such a way that only Holly Lisle could have written it. You have nightlings, which as Holly describes, sound very much like elegant and mysterious fairies. Then you have audiomaerist or fortune tellers. You have wizards and monsters. You have a quest element, but one that though it does not encompass a whole world, it directly affects two very different societies. You have the mystical object, the Ruby Key, and the prince in hiding.

I look forward to reading more about Genna, Danrith, Yarri and the cat in the next books. This world of Moon and Sun is one I'd like to visit again and again.