375th out of 1,215 books
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Across the Great Barrier (Frontier Magic #2)
From New York Times #1 bestselling author Patricia C. Wrede, the second in the series of magic on the western frontier.
Eff is riding west, away from the safety of the frontier city she's always known....
Eff could be a powerful magician if she wanted to. Except she's not sure she wants that kind of responsibility. Everyone keeps waiting for her to do something amazing--or...more
Eff is riding west, away from the safety of the frontier city she's always known....
Eff could be a powerful magician if she wanted to. Except she's not sure she wants that kind of responsibility. Everyone keeps waiting for her to do something amazing--or...more
Hardcover, 339 pages
Published
August 1st 2011
by Scholastic
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I liked this one even better than the first in the series, so I'm glad that I decided to continue with it. It again wasn't the quickest read, but I really like Eff, and I'd keep reading more about her escapades and learning of magic. I really like the interesting magical systems in this series, and I love alternate histories, so all of this works very well for me. Might even be closer to 4 1/2 stars, especially since I again missed it after I was done reading. It's interesting to me that even th...more
Eff is determined to find her own way.
Even if it means torking her faulty spells with Afrikan magic, ignoring her brother’s advice, and rejecting the “opportunity-of-a-lifetime-to-attend-an-Eastern-University.”
Instead she signs up to trek across the Great Barrier on a research expedition.
As an assistant.
In charge of . . . nothing.
Except hunting wild saber cats, sketching mysteriously malformed insects, and unearthing statues with . . . blood vessels?
Across the Great Barrier isn’t a “grand advent...more
Even if it means torking her faulty spells with Afrikan magic, ignoring her brother’s advice, and rejecting the “opportunity-of-a-lifetime-to-attend-an-Eastern-University.”
Instead she signs up to trek across the Great Barrier on a research expedition.
As an assistant.
In charge of . . . nothing.
Except hunting wild saber cats, sketching mysteriously malformed insects, and unearthing statues with . . . blood vessels?
Across the Great Barrier isn’t a “grand advent...more
I find this to be an even better series than Card's Alvin Maker stories. While I do not yet understand some of the historical choices that the author made, they are still intriguing. The idea of different styles of magic in different regions of the world rings true from folkloric traditions, and the idea that a magical ecosystem is much harder to explore and conquer than a non-magical one is handled very well.
After two books, I am still intrigued by the Great Barrier itself. I really hope that t...more
After two books, I am still intrigued by the Great Barrier itself. I really hope that t...more
A solid YA novel, like the previous installment in the series. One of the things I find interesting about this series is that it's more about world-building and character than about action. This installment eventually includes a minor mystery and a little action, but they come toward the end. Mostly, it's about the day-to-day life of people in an Old West-era setting who are mostly limited to living in the East, because of the proliferation of incredibly dangerous magical creatures in the Americ...more
I thought that the idea of this book (a magical version of the American frontier) was fascinating. However, time passed badly, with too much time spent on uninteresting internal conflict (should I go East with my brother? Why do my Avrupan spells not work? I'm getting over the fact that I'm not really unlucky, even though I am a thirteenth child, but sometimes it's hard, etc.). Mysteries are brought up and badly explained, or not explained at all. Her wooden pendant? What is that? Why does she k...more
Across the Great Barrier
OR
Awkwardly Both Trying and Avoiding Dealing with Colonialism and Racism In Fantasy Frontier Land
I wish this book had been out when I was a teenager and I'm glad that it exists for girls now, even though not as many of them who should read it will. Because there is no romance in this book and I LOVE it for that.
In fact, the book goes so far as to have a heroine who, stop the press and be prepared to be awed, has more important things in her life than who she will marry! I...more
OR
Awkwardly Both Trying and Avoiding Dealing with Colonialism and Racism In Fantasy Frontier Land
I wish this book had been out when I was a teenager and I'm glad that it exists for girls now, even though not as many of them who should read it will. Because there is no romance in this book and I LOVE it for that.
In fact, the book goes so far as to have a heroine who, stop the press and be prepared to be awed, has more important things in her life than who she will marry! I...more
I think I liked the first title better, but this was pretty good as well. Strictly speaking, this is not hisorical fiction but altternative historical fiction which I don't have a category for at this time. Eff has reconciled with her history of being a 13th child and therefore bad luck and realizes that this is so much nonsense. This time it is her brother who needs to reconcile his actions and figure out how to respond to the great mistake he made that got someone killed accidentally. Eff is l...more
This is the second book in a trilogy, the first being Thirteenth Child. In this book, Eff, the main character, graduates from upper school and has to decide what to do with herself. She ends up on a biology survey expedition with a professor from the college and Wash, her friend and mentor in Afrikan magic.
The main plot of the story is good, about the survey group finding pieces of animal statues in a collapsed hillside. Or are they statues? The pace of the book moves along pretty well, and lik...more
The main plot of the story is good, about the survey group finding pieces of animal statues in a collapsed hillside. Or are they statues? The pace of the book moves along pretty well, and lik...more
A solid sequel in much the same vein as its predecessor, Across the Great Barrier can be distinguished in part due to its strange world-building and surprisingly organized form of fantasy. Patricia C. Wrede writes in a straight-forward fashion, jumping through time with the same speed and ease employed in Thirteenth Child. The writing is therefore mostly expository (with occasional dialogue making its way into the story), which can be a turn-off for some readers but a stylistic choice I rather e...more
I had no clue this was second in a series. Anyways, Wrede is one of my favorite authors. She won me over with her Calling on Dragons series (or whatever name it goes by). I really thought this book would be stunning, and although it's better than most out there, I'm only giving it two stars because it's such low quality for Wrede.
Reading it went something like this:
Chapter 1. Exposition. midly interesting, I get the whole magician thing, magic natures, etc.
Chapter 2. more exposition. OK, a bit...more
Reading it went something like this:
Chapter 1. Exposition. midly interesting, I get the whole magician thing, magic natures, etc.
Chapter 2. more exposition. OK, a bit...more
Not my favorite book by this author, but it was an enjoyable read. The feel of the "frontier" was definitely there, and it read like a series with the word "prairie" in the title. It's a little slow to get started,and there's not really one overarching plot other than Eff learning more about herself and her magic. Still, the small episodic plot segments were interesting and kept my interest.
I have two main issues with this novel. One, there were all these mentions of magical creatures and hardly...more
I have two main issues with this novel. One, there were all these mentions of magical creatures and hardly...more
Nov 27, 2011
Kristel
rated it
4 of 5 stars
Shelves:
canton-public-library,
female-independence,
female-protagonist,
brothers-and-sisters,
twins,
magic,
pioneer-life,
village-life,
homesteading,
great-barrier,
learning,
magic-school,
large-families,
animals,
excavations,
horses,
wagons,
settlements,
plant-and-animal-surveys,
letter-writing,
fossils,
fantasy,
early-young-adult,
young-adult,
fiction,
middleschoolers,
ages-12-and-up
Second in the Frontier Magic series and a true page-turner, this book is blend of low and high fantasy. It’s set in the United States but not the United States readers will know. Eff, the eighteen-year-old heroine, lives with her pioneer family in a settled town out west. Readers will be familiar with the cities St. Louis and Washington, national heroes like Thomas Jefferson, as well as calico dresses and homestead claims. What is unfamiliar is the existence of three types of magic, magical crea...more
This is a rather strange book in many ways. One of the heroine's main interests is animals and two of her jobs involved cataloging plants and animals and taking care of captured animals, both magical and non-magical. All of the action, as it were, takes place in a rather strange alternate reality version of the wild American west. These elements don't seem destined for an interesting book, and yet, I found myself reading the whole thing and eager to keep reading - a marked contrast to most of th...more
Across the Great Barrier is set in an alternate history where magic is everyday and magical creatures are among the many dangers that white settlers face in the "United States of Columbia." This book continues to follow Eff (the titular character of Thirteenth Child) who has always grown up in the shadow of her twin brother (a 7th son of a 7th son). While she no longer believes herself to be cursed, Eff has never had occasion to really think about her future, and as her last year of Upper School...more
I really enjoyed The Thirteenth Child and have been anxiously awaiting the sequel. Set in the the 1800's, the story takes place in what seems to be a parallel world where The United States is not of America, but of Columbia. There were still issues of slavery and the wild west, but magic is evident in the land, the creatures and even the people in this world. It is interesting to see what kind of tidbits she pulls from actual history for this series.
I admit that at first I felt the book started...more
I admit that at first I felt the book started...more
This sequel to The Thirteenth Child continues the adventures of Eff, who has now come to terms with being the (supposedly) unlucky 13th child. Her twin brother Lan (a very powerful 7th son of a 7th son) is back east in Philadelphia at the top college for budding magicians. Her friend William is soon on his way East to a different college, leaving Eff at home, working for a professor at her school. It starts as just a job in the menagerie of magical creatures, but expands to the point that she is...more
The most striking thing about this series isn't the characters, but rather the world they inhabit, which seems as wide and as varied as our own. The world that Wrede creates is huge and complex, and you find yourself sucked into it. At times it might seem a little dry, and at other times there's just a deluge of information that you need to know, which is its main detriment, but for the most part, it's hugely fascinating.
The book is less about Eff's grand adventures, and more about her day to d...more
The book is less about Eff's grand adventures, and more about her day to d...more
So I love Patricia Wrede. Here Dealing with Dragons series was a critical part of my reading experience as a young person. So when I spotted this galley on the shelf at the store, I snatched it up. I had no idea it was the second book in a series when I first started, and it only really started to occur to me about halfway through the book when I sat back and thought about how she'd structured things. Regardless, I didn't mind coming in in media res as it were; she'd built her world and her char...more
3.5
There are several things that I think Ms. Wrede has done particularly well here.
The first is that she has again/still given readers a female protagonist who is a healthy human character for girls to read. Eff has lots of doubts abour herself and her place in the world and she still jumps to foolish conclusions in ways that don't do her credit. But she has grown in these two titles and we watch her learn in this one, which is really interesting and nicely written.
This is the second "second in...more
There are several things that I think Ms. Wrede has done particularly well here.
The first is that she has again/still given readers a female protagonist who is a healthy human character for girls to read. Eff has lots of doubts abour herself and her place in the world and she still jumps to foolish conclusions in ways that don't do her credit. But she has grown in these two titles and we watch her learn in this one, which is really interesting and nicely written.
This is the second "second in...more
The sequel to Thirteenth Child.
I liked this much better than the first book. It is clever, the characters are interesting (more so than the first book), the fascinating varieties and philosophies of magic is developed further, and we see more of the land beyond the Great Barrier. It is a sort of Wild West with magic, in which the land beyond the Great Barrier (a magic barrier designed to keep out threats) is slowly being colonized, and it is very dangerous. There are the magical creatures (sphi...more
I liked this much better than the first book. It is clever, the characters are interesting (more so than the first book), the fascinating varieties and philosophies of magic is developed further, and we see more of the land beyond the Great Barrier. It is a sort of Wild West with magic, in which the land beyond the Great Barrier (a magic barrier designed to keep out threats) is slowly being colonized, and it is very dangerous. There are the magical creatures (sphi...more
I absolutely love this series. What I like about them especially is that they’re totally different from the standard young adult magic book. The winding narrative and voice of the heroine harkens strongly to a Mark Twain, fitting considering the time period the books are supposed to be set in. While the books are loosely connected to each other, each is really a separate story, and Eff is just a regular magician, not some child of promise upon whom the weight of the world stands. It’s refreshing...more
As a high school English teacher, I should be greatly concerned with plot and characterization and other literary elements within a story. But when I read books for pleasure, I'm not looking for any of those things. I'm simply looking to enjoy a good book. For me, this was definitely a book worth reading and rereading.
I was introduced to Patricia Wrede several years ago through her Dealing with Dragons series. I loved those books because they ran the gamut of reading levels, and my students coul...more
I was introduced to Patricia Wrede several years ago through her Dealing with Dragons series. I loved those books because they ran the gamut of reading levels, and my students coul...more
This story continues Thirteenth Child and follows it closely in time. Lan is away at a magical college back East and Eff is finishing Upper School and thinking about her future. She decides that she wants to continue working with Professor Jeffries and the menagerie at the Northern Plains College. Her real goal is to explore the land beyond the Great Barrier Spell. She also gets a chance to meet Professor Torgeson from Vinland and work with her.
When an expedition is arranged to go out and colle...more
When an expedition is arranged to go out and colle...more
Continuing where she left off in the earlier Thirteenth Child, Wrede follows Eff's journey of self-acceptance in this engaging tale. Although Eff insists that she's simply ordinary, she has a way with magic. While she remains overshadowed by her brother, Lan, who is a double seventh son, she works to understand the gifts she has been given. When the chance is offered to travel west past the Barrier Spell into a land where unexpected dangers lie, she quickly agrees to accompany Professor Torgeson...more
Thirteenth Child was unique and interesting, and I loved it unreservedly. Across the Great Barrier shares the characters and world I fell in love with, but it clearly suffers from middle book syndrome.
Eff finishes school and waffles a bit on what to do next. She'd like to explore out west, but for now she'll work at the menagerie. There's an expedition, which I keep expecting to lead to an important event but they just wind it up and come back home. There's a family crisis, is this going to be t...more
Eff finishes school and waffles a bit on what to do next. She'd like to explore out west, but for now she'll work at the menagerie. There's an expedition, which I keep expecting to lead to an important event but they just wind it up and come back home. There's a family crisis, is this going to be t...more
Eff is the the thirteenth child born to her family. Folklore will tell you that she is cursed, doomed to bring bad luck to all around her. Her twin-brother Lan, is the seventh son of a seventh son, which means he is more powerful and destined to do great things. Yet it was Eff who saved the settlements from the mirror bugs, so Eff is starting to think that maybe all that stuff about her been cursed is poppycock.
Lan has gone back East to study at a prestigious college and is pressuring Eff to fol...more
Lan has gone back East to study at a prestigious college and is pressuring Eff to fol...more
I got this book from the library, and I read the first four chapters in the library. I liked what I read in the first four chapters, so I took it home with me. Anyways I think I was half way through the book before I realised that this was the second book in Frontier Magic series. For a second I was contemplating if I should stop reading and get the first book. I decide to just continue reading the second book.
I loved this book, it was so well written and there was a lot of character developmen...more
I loved this book, it was so well written and there was a lot of character developmen...more
Jul 03, 2011
Miz Lizzie
rated it
2 of 5 stars
Shelves:
african-american,
alternate-reality,
animals,
history,
magic,
road-trips,
series,
usa,
young-adult
The second book in this series featuring an alternative magical history of the western expansion in the United States continues in the same sedate memoir-like pace despite some dramatic action along the way. Eff has now finally let go of the debilitating belief that as a thirteenth child she is dangerous, bad, and unlucky. For the first time, she starts to consider her options for the future. The only thing she knows for certain is that she would like to spend more time on the other, wild side o...more
If "The Thirteenth Child" could be said to have lit a fire in my brain, "Across the Great Barrier" fanned it into a conflagration. This is story of Eff, the twin sister of a universally lauded seventh son of a seventh son, as she finds her calling in an alternate version of the American frontier (the "United States of Columbia"), with wildly original magic, giant mammals from the Pleistocene era, and dragons. What excited me most about this fantasy series is how, well, scientific the book is. Th...more
Probably 4.5 stars, but I'm rounding up. Because I quite liked this. I read this on the train today. I continue to really enjoy this series. So glad the library had the third one as well and it's currently sitting in my room. You know what I am consistently impressed by with Patricia Wrede? She's very good at letting everyone be competent. People still have their flaws, but they're also competent. I very much enjoy the sense of balance I always feel in these books.
It's not a groundbreaking serie...more
It's not a groundbreaking serie...more
| topics | posts | views | last activity | |
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| thirteenth child | 3 | 26 | Aug 04, 2012 08:18pm |
Patricia Collins Wrede was born in Chicago, Illinois and is the eldest of five children. She started writing in seventh grade. She attended Carleton College in Minnesota, where she majored in Biology and managed to avoid taking any English courses at all. She began work on her first novel, Shadow Magic, just after graduating from college in 1974. She finished it five years later and started her se...more
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