Rook

February 2, 2015
The Scarlet Pimpernel gets an eco-disaster update as Cameron (The Dark Unwinding) imagines how civilization would regress if a shift in Earth’s magnetic poles caused worldwide catastrophe. One could contest whether the structures and worldview of 1790s France would reemerge as a stabilization point 800 years after the apocalypse, but given this scenario, Cameron puts an entertaining spin on the original. Eighteen-year-old Sophia Bellamy, enabled by paternal inattention and fraternal complicity, darts between the ravaged British coastline and a partially sunken Paris. As the Red Rook, she rescues French prisoners doomed to the Razor by the malignant security chief LeBlanc. At home, she faces a loveless marriage to René Hasard, LeBlanc’s foppish cousin. Their engagement is still new when Sophia realizes that there is more substance to René—and more hazard in their situation—than she had reckoned with. Alas, one element Cameron preserves is the Pimpernel’s thoroughly male-constructed reality. While energetic, Sophia is nevertheless dependent not only on her beau but on a panoply of fairy-tale good guys to get her out of her messes. Ages 12–up. Agent: Kelly Sonnack, Andrea Brown Literary Agency.

February 15, 2015
A clever homage to The Scarlet Pimpernel, set in a post-apocalyptic future Europe. In a distant future where most modern technology has been lost, Sophia Bellamy, 18, leads a double life. By day, she is a young woman of the Commonwealth whose arranged marriage will save her family from debt. By night, she's the daring Red Rook, who rescues prisoners from the bloodthirsty revolutionaries of the Sunken City (which once was Paris). However, LeBlanc, the Sunken City's fanatical Ministre of Security, has tracked the Red Rook back to Sophia's home in Kent. Now Sophia must protect her family and the prisoners she has just rescued and determine whether her sly, all-too-charming fiance, Rene Hasard, is an enemy or an ally. Cameron (Unseen, 2014) riffs off Baroness Orczy's sentimental classic without losing any of the romance and adventure that has made it perennially popular. Rich descriptions bring Sophia's world-from the horrors of the Sunken City's prisons to her glittering social milieu-to Technicolor life. Sophia's wits and bravado make her an irresistible protagonist; Rene proves to be a worthy foil, though unfortunately the same cannot be said of LeBlanc. Still, the novel's 456 pages mostly fly by thanks to the nonstop intrigue and the occasional swoon-worthy kiss. Full of derring-do and double crosses, this romantic adventure is thoroughly engrossing. (Science fiction. 13-18)

March 1, 2015

Gr 9 Up-"It was a fine night for an execution..." but the Red Rook has other plans. Eighteen-year-old Sophia Bellamy, with the help of her older brother Tom and their trusted friend Spear, has freed the prisoners before the Razor could sever their heads. This retelling of The Scarlet Pimpernel (a story unlikely to be familiar to most teens) is set in a far-future England and France, when magnetic pole shifts have rendered technology a distant memory. Candlelight, penned letters, and escapes on horseback are the order of the day, and shards of plastic can fetch a pretty price. A political atmosphere similar to the French Revolution has taken hold, and the Rook is determined that innocent lives will not be lost. When not wielding her sword (and a red-tipped feather as a calling card), Sophia is juggling her betrothal of convenience to handsome Frenchman Rene Hasard, meant to save the Bellamy estate from forfeiture. Rene is more intriguing (and smarter) than she expected, and though uncomfortable sparks initially fly between them, they soon find they are on the same side, despite Rene kinship to the Ministre of Security-the very man who has vowed to see the Red Rook brought down. Sophia and Rene are well matched, and Cameron's atmospheric writing keeps the novel moving. A good choice where Robin LaFevers's Grave Mercy (Houghton Harcourt, 2012) or Jennifer Donnelly's Revolution (Delacorte, 2010) are popular. VERDICT This dashing story line combines a technology-free dystopia with swashbuckling romance.-Maggie Knapp, Trinity Valley School, Fort Worth, TX

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