Sweetness and Blight: Shattering the Unicorn Myth

SKANDAR AND THE UNICORN THIEF
By A.F. Steadman

Oy, extra unicorns? The legendary creatures have been throughout image books the previous few years, thirst-trapping younger readers with their large eyes, fluffy coats and candy-colored manes. These tales normally lean into themes of being distinctive and particular and believing in magic. The unadulterated sweetness is sufficient to make you need to stab your eyes with a glittery unicorn horn.

So it’s not arduous to think about that tweens and younger teenagers who’re able to put away infantile issues will likely be enthralled by the novel re-envisioning of unicorns on this center grade fantasy novel, the primary in a brand new sequence by the younger, Cambridge-educated debut creator A.F. Steadman. “Rancid breath, rotting flesh, the stench of immortal loss of life” — these are hallmarks of the malevolent wild unicorns that roam “the Island” they name house. Steadman’s emaciated, red-eyed flying monsters are killers. Frankly, it’s form of refreshing.

The novel is ready in a modern-day England (“the Mainland”), the place girls and boys dream of incomes the privilege to coach as unicorn riders on the Island and compete within the prestigious Chaos Cup, a kind of Tremendous Bowl of unicorn battle competitions. Whereas the creatures people experience, generally known as “bonded unicorns,” are tamer and extra loyal than the aforementioned wild ones, they’re nonetheless bloodthirsty and unpredictable, able to capturing lethal bursts of fireside, water, earth and air.

The story follows Skandar Smith, a lonely, motherless, unicorn-obsessed 13-year-old who, chosen to coach, finds himself preventing an evil entity referred to as the Weaver that’s been killing people, stealing unicorns and threatening destruction.

Steadman reportedly earned a seven-figure deal for the primary three books in her sequence, which has already been optioned for a film. It’s straightforward to see why. Together with the well-crafted terror and suspense, there are some memorably joyous moments, just like the scene during which Skandar lovingly hatches his unicorn (wager you didn’t know they arrive from eggs!): “Boy and unicorn stared at one another … he hadn’t thought he’d have the ability to really feel it: a decent pull in his chest, as if his coronary heart strings have been now related elsewhere, exterior himself.” There are additionally loads of extra conventional center grade comforts: camaraderie with new buddies, cozy late-night sandwiches, cool secret tunnels, treehouses.

That mentioned, it’s unimaginable to learn “Skandar and the Unicorn Thief” and never instantly begin to make a psychological record of all the ins and outs that retread the trail of earlier fantasy franchises, from Percy Jackson to Christopher Paolini’s Inheritance Cycle to “The Starvation Video games” to “The Final Airbender” to Pokémon to (most clearly) Harry Potter. Actually, the Harry Potter beats are so apparent and so acquainted (the misfit hero with a useless guardian, the magical boarding college, the scholars sorted into 4 distinct divisions, the awakening of an elusive evil), it looks as if Steadman isn’t even feigning originality however treating J.Ok. Rowling’s textual content as if it have been Homer’s “Odyssey” or a Grimm’s fairy story — an archetypal story that’s truthful recreation for authors to respin. (The superb “The Marvellers,” by Dhonielle Clayton, a couple of kind of world Hogwarts, is one other instance of this.)

Sure, there are some plot holes. Sure, I want it have been funnier. However Steadman’s novel nonetheless soars. The tantalizing bread crumbs she’s dropped make me longing for the subsequent installment. And that’s no load of rainbow poop.