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5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Excellent, March 10, 2009
This review is from: Stone Voice Rising (Hardcover)
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All I can really say is wow! Ok, so I'll be honest I picked this one because of the cover art, and I'll admitt that the first few chapters didn't do much for me. but I hate giving up on a book once I've started, so I kept reading. I'm so glad I did. I ended up enjoying Stone Voice Rising immensely. Well developed, character driven and highly visual. Stone Voice Rising draws you in and keeps you there. Turing the pages and caring about the characters.
Lilibit can hear what the stones are whispering. She is meant to be the earth's new Stone Voice who will ultimately connect the planet with the universe. Her protector, a stone warrior, attempts to take her to the place called Kiva to fulfill her destiny--but they are intercepted by Syxx, an evil entity devoted to finding the source of Lilibit's power. Lilibit ends up at a group home for unwanted children, damaged and near death. But she recovers and journeys to Kiva with the other children, bestowing upon them the stones that allow them to embrace their own powers, fight Syxx's minions, and save the earth.
But really this doesn't even begin to touch the depth and creativity of this novel. Part road story, part action adventure, part magical fantasy. Technically classified as juvenile fiction, but I'm 28 and I wasn't bored at all. I think this books holds appeal for both male and female readers of all ages, but there are some graphic scenes and mild language.
Stone Voice Rising is the first book of the Chronicles of Kiva and C. Lee Tocci definitely has my attention.
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5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A fantasy for young adults...., March 9, 2009
This review is from: Stone Voice Rising (Hardcover)
Customer review from the Amazon Vine™ Program (What's this?)
Lilibit can talk to rocks. They whisper messages to her. She doesn't understand it but it is so. When a neighbor calls the police on her for moving around her landscape rocks once again, Lilibit says she did it because one of the stone's wanted to go back to the ocean where it came from and was making the woman's baby cry constantly. The woman was scared by this information and made her husband take the rock back to the ocean. This episode has convinced the two ladies taking care of Lilibit that she is growing up and must be protected before she is taken from them by an evil organization run by the demon Syxx.
A man who resembles a mighty oak tree came to take Lilibit to the city of Kiva, but Syxx sends out a helicopter gang to get them while they are traveling there and Lilibit ends up running off on her own. She is kidnapped during her run and held captive for 5 years by the demon Syxx where is has brain surgery done to try and make her forget the stones or to learn her secret of talking to them. During that five years (but only for a few chapters), we hear no more of Lilibit and the plot skips to a boy named Todd who as a child talked to birds and then it skips to Todd five years later. He grew up as a foster child and kept being moved around because he kept talking to the birds (which was freaking out the foster parents).
The plot resumes with both Todd and Lilibit at the five years later mark where they meet at a foster home that has 7 children of unusual abilities. When an earthquake hits the town, the 7 children try to make it to the city Kiva where they think they can find refuge because it is where Lilibit wants to go so bad. The rest of the book deals with the dangers they face along the way. The demon Syxx is trying to kill them at every turn.
The story ends with questions unanswered so there will defintely be a sequel to it. That is good because I thought the children needed to be older for the story to continue. It was hard for me to picture Lilibit going from age 6 to 11 in this story because she still seemed like 6 all throughout it, but that is because of the brain surgery which left her crippled for part of the time. Todd had to carry her so much that I kept picturing a small child the whole time. I think the story was good though and kids from 9 up should enjoy it. It has some humor in it too. It's a long story though (over 400 pages) so your kids would have to be a big reader to enjoy it! Easy to read and no foul language, likeable children, a good plot and any violence is not dwelled on.
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Too little time spent with the characters that counted., July 21, 2009
This review is from: Stone Voice Rising (Hardcover)
Customer review from the Amazon Vine™ Program (What's this?)
Six-year-old Lilibit can hear what the stones are saying. A tall man shows up at her aunties' house to take her away. He seems nice, but she doesn't want to go anywhere. On her way to this new mystery place, some men attack. Lilibit is taken away from the tall man to a horrible place.
Five years later, Lilibit arrives in a foster home with six other unwanted children. When disaster strikes, Todd, the oldest, leads the children into the mountains he's been dreaming about. But bad men in helicopters are chasing them and Todd doesn't know why. Can the children make it to the mountain sanctuary before the bad men get them?
This book was really hard to follow. There is just too much going on. I thought the premise was interesting but a little bit strange. A girl who talks to rocks is one thing, but every character that came into the story had some random ability, including the cliché kid who can hack into the CIA's computers. Since this was a contemporary fantasy (with helicopters and guns) that didn't make sense to the reader. How come all these kids had abilities? We needed to see it though the eyes of a character that was as clueless as the reader. That way, we readers could experience the story with awe and wonder instead of confusion. The strange creatures and peoples seemed forced. They served little purpose to move the plot along and only aggravated me as one more thing to take me away from the main characters. If we would have stayed with Lilibit and Todd, things might have been more engaging.
Also, I wanted to learn more about the way this secret world in the real world worked. They spoke of a Creator and how the Stone Voice was a part of balancing everything, but all that was left hanging, for a sequel, I guess. I was looking forward to a conclusion that brought the main plot together, but we really didn't get one. So that was also frustrating. Too much crammed in, too little time spent with the characters that counted.
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