The Song of the Quarkbeast

nancydrew963 - This review is kind of long and has a lot of spoilers The Song of the Quarkbeast is about Kazam being challenged to a contest against a new magic company called iMagic. They are competing to rebuild a bridge and the stakes are high: if Kazam loses, iMagic can seize control of Kazam and choose the new Court Mystician, who is 8th in line to the throne. iMagic is owned by Conrad Blix, the grandson of the crazy-evil genius Blix the Hideously Barbarous. With royalty on iMagic's side and almost the entire ,Kazam team for the bridge contest in jail, Jennifer is sure the Kazam will lose. Two sorcerers are turned to stone trying to uncover the RUNIX, which contains enough stored magic for the contest. At the same time, the psychic at Kazam predicts that the Great Zambini, who has been appearing in random places for years, will appear again at a certain place on the same day as the contest. Jenny finds the Great Zambini, but doesn't get much help from him for the contest.The day of the contest, Jenny comes up with a plan to get back her teammates. On the day of the contest, she tells Queen Mimosa about her team being in jail and Queen Mimosa lets some of the sorcerers get out of jail. During the contest, a surge happens due to a separating Quarkbeast. Blix runs away and Jenny gets back her Quarkbeast from the previous book. She hears the song of the Quarkbeast, which is caused when two Quarkbeasts are together (despite the song of the Quarkbeast, this isn't a major part of the story so it's a bit of an unfitting title) Kazam wins the contest and iMagic is shut down. The employees from iMagic beg Jenny to let them work at Kazam and Jenny lets them in, then discovers that Blix had enchanted himself to make him look like an employee so he could sneak in and steal the magic stored in the RUNIX. Jenny arrests him, but then the magic surges and Blix gets all of the magic. Then Perkins, Jenny's would-be boyfriend, tells them about Vision BO55, which was also part of the psychic at Kazam's prediction. The Vision says that Blix's wife will overpower him and be his demise. It turns out that the Once Magnificent Boo, whose index fingers were cut off because of kidnappers, is actually Blix's wife. She gets her fingers back and petrifies Blix to stone. Now all is well.

Starred review from July 15, 2013
“Big Magic,” which had been in serious decline in the Ununited Kingdom, returned at the end of The Last Dragonslayer, the first installment in Fforde’s Chronicles of Kazam. Now that magical power is on the rise again, the despotic King Snodd IV hopes to cash in, specifically by putting the wizards who work at Kazam Mystical Arts Management under his control by proposing they merge with iMagic, the rival house led by the Amazing Blix, a questionable character with a new royal appointment: Court Mystician. “Over our dead bodies,” pretty much sums up the Kazam staff’s reaction, and no one is more resolute than 16-year-old Jennifer Strange, the foundling who has been running Kazam since the Great Zambini’s disappearance. Challenged to a magic duel that will decide their fate, Jennifer and her (mostly) lovable cast of misfits must rely more on wits than on wands to preserve their independence. It’s not essential to have read the first book to enjoy this one, but those who enjoyed the witty wordplay and whacked-out humor of The Last Dragonslayer will find the same delights in this sequel. Ages 10–14.