The Demon King

September 28, 2009
Princess Raisa, heir to the Queendom of the Fells, chafes against the forced royal marriage in her future. Trying to support his family with odd jobs, Han can’t decide what life he wants from among the three he’s juggling—and past mistakes made when he was a gang leader keep surfacing to haunt him. Additionally, Han finds himself the unwitting owner of an ancient talisman taken from the land’s most powerful wizards, while Raisa faces the political maneuverings of those supposedly bound to serve her family. In elegant prose, Chima (the Heir series) constructs a complex but comprehensible world, where wizards and clans coexist in an uneasy and restrictive arrangement, brokered after the destructive actions of the Demon King, 1,000 years earlier. With full-blooded, endearing heroes, a well-developed supporting cast and a detail-rich setting, Chima explores the lives of two young adults, one at the top of the world and the other at the bottom, struggling to find their place and protect those they love. An auspicious start to the planned Seven Realms trilogy. Ages 12–up.

The first in a new trilogy, this audiobook draws listeners in with Carol Monda's enchanting narration of the parallel stories of Han Alister, a former street lord, and Raisa, princess heir of the queendom. Monda's mature reading is a perfect match for the mythical aspects of the story, including the history of the Fells and the magical powers ascribed to the wizards and members of the clan. Monda expertly provides a wide variety of voices for the array of characters who inhabit the realm, but she's not as successful at keeping the pace moving during the narrative. The one distraction from this magical tale is that the voice of Princess Raisa, meant to be aristocratic, comes across as slightly whiny; therefore, the strength of her character, intended to suggest that of her legendary ancestor Queen Hanalea, doesn't fully shine. E.N. (c) AudioFile 2010, Portland, Maine