The Rise of Magicks

September 16, 2019
Roberts’s rushed-feeling follow-up to 2018’s Of Blood and Bone concludes her Chronicles of the One trilogy, which details how 19-year-old Fallon Swift—who is prophesied to save the world—raises an army to prepare for the ultimate showdown between good and evil. The book is set some 20 years after mankind was nearly eradicated by a virus unleashed by a broken magical shield. The survivors either remained human or evolved into creatures with supernatural powers known as Uncannys. Fallon spends much of this volume making alliances and taking out strongholds run by intolerant humans and Dark Uncannys in a buildup to taking back New York City for the good guys. Fallon’s goal is to deduce the proper time to close the shield that started all this, and to settle the score with her evil cousin Petra. While Roberts retains her ability for using humor to break up the heavy-handedness of fantasy writing, her usually on-point pacing is off. There’s a romance between Fallon and her coleader, Duncan, who had a nicely unfurling flirtation in the previous novel but here go from resisting each other to deeply in love to practically engaged in a heartbeat. Showdowns are built up as epic but end before readers can fully absorb them. Fans will see flashes of Roberts’s talents here, but will wish that she had fleshed things out. 1,000,000-copy announced first printing.

September 15, 2019
In the conclusion to Roberts' Chronicles of The One, Fallon Swift and her army vanquish violent, fearmongering leaders, but in order to reintroduce light to the world, she and her two closest magickal allies must face the darkness and their most dangerous foe back where the Doom began. Nearly twenty years after the Doom (Of Blood and Bone, 2018, etc.), Fallon Swift has become a powerful witch and raised an army of both magickal and nonmagickal people determined to bring down the corrupt U.S. government as well as Jeremiah White and his anti-magickal Purity Warriors, both of which prey upon magickal people. But as she travels across the country preparing for battle and surveying the land, Fallon finds small pockets of decent, tolerant people who have started or maintained their own mixed communities, much like the successful New Hope. Inspired to protect them and help them build, she works with her family and friends to plan a revolution dedicated to the motto "Light for Life," so all people can live in peace and security. Creating communities and helping them thrive has the added benefit of providing a place for survivors when Fallon and her allies take over PW strongholds and government research facilities, safe spaces which become breeding grounds for more soldiers willing to fight for the cause. Fallon and her army take bold and inspired actions to gain ground against the darkness, but there's no question that in order to truly vanquish the evil that's grown since the Doom, she'll have to face it at its source. Meanwhile, Fallon's relationship with Duncan grows ever stronger, and the dance around their attraction moves toward a powerful commitment, though facing off against evil never guarantees survival. Roberts' magnificent trilogy concludes with another title that perfectly balances magic, adventure, romance, and steely resolve in the battle of good vs. evil while reminding us that while the battles may save us, it's the home, hearth, and community which sustain us. Brilliant and inspiring.

COPYRIGHT(2019) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

August 1, 2019
The world desperately needs a miracle. It has been two decades since the Doom - the mysterious plague that has killed billions of people - first appeared. Now what is left of the planet's human population is divided between the Magicks, and those like the Purity Warriors who believe the Magicks are responsible for the Doom. Fortunately, the earth also has Fallon Swift. Now fully trained in her magical powers, Fallon is determined to free the Magicks who have been enslaved by the Purity Warriors and to create new communities for everyone who survived to live in peace. But in order to do so, Fallon must assemble a coalition of magicks and non-magicks, who will be willing to fight together and banish the evil force behind the Doom once and for all. Deftly wielding her own brand of literary magic, Roberts once again merges mesmerizing characters, inventive plotting, and propulsive pacing as she presents the compulsively readable finale to her altogether bewitching Chronicles of The One trilogy: Year One (2017), Of Blood and Bone (2018).HIGH-DEMAND BACKSTORY: A million-copy, one-day laydown will ensure that the hordes of readers hungry for the conclusion to best-selling Roberts' sf trilogy will be fully satisfied.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2019, American Library Association.)

September 1, 2019

In this conclusion to Roberts's "Chronicles of the One" trilogy, begun with Year One and Of Blood and Bone, Fallon has learned the ways of magick, a part of her world since the destruction of civilization. Her new skills come in handy as she sets out to rescue those hunted or imprisoned by the obsessive Purity Warriors--and then to help them heal.

Copyright 2019 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.