About the Author:
Cinda Williams Chima made her debut as a young adult author with the Warrior Heir. Cinda is a graduate of the University of Akron, where she now teaches. A freelance writer, she has published more than one hundred reviews, feature articles, and essays in local and national media. Her nutrition column appears regularly in the Taste section of The Plain Dealer. Ms. Chima lives in Ohio with her husband and two sons.
Review:
In this companion to The Warrior Heir (Hyperion, 2006), orphaned Seph, 16, is an untrained wizard who can fling fire from his fingertips. After one of his many accidental fires kills a friend, he's sent to a secluded boys' school in Maine. The headmaster, Dr. Leicester, a powerful wizard, offers to train him. Initially, Seph agrees but then changes his mind after he's nearly forced to participate in an initiation where he's made to swear an oath to Leicester and allow him to link Seph's power to his. For refusing, Leicester tortures Seph with hallucinatory dreams that nearly drive him insane. When he finally finds a way to communicate with the outside world, Linda Downey, an enchanter, rescues him and takes him to the town of Trinity, OH, a sanctuary for wizards and other members of magical guilds. There, he meets many of the characters who appeared in the first book, including Jack Swift, Ellen Stephenson, and Leander Hastings, as well as a new character, Madison, who can draw power from wizards. Seph and his new friends must find a way to stop an impending war between the two great wizard houses. This exciting page-turner is darker than The Warrior Heir and, because of its depiction of Leicester's love of inflicting pain and frequent violence, is more appropriate for older readers. SLJ"
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