Finnikin of the Rock (Lumatere Chronicles, #1) in What's the Name of That Book???

Dec 16, 2014 Jessica rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: fantasy, own, youngadult

This book is the literary equivalent of a FREAKING UNICORN.

Here is a fantasy written by someone who cares more about characters than about checking off boxes on the Fantasy Novel Checklist. Here is a YA book that features a love story but not a love triangle.

DID YOU CATCH THAT? THERE IS NO LOVE TRIANGLE. I can't even remember the last time I read a YA fantasy that didn't involve a love triangle. I almost wept with gratitude when I realized that the plot wasn't going to come down to, "Which boy ...more

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Apr 07, 2011 Eh?Eh! rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Shelves: babble-added, ah-ree-ell

This book takes place on a little island. Well, a biggish island. This took me a while to figure out as I would read how they traveled from this point to that point in a few days and I'd flip to the map to be confused by how much distance that meant.

In the brief prologue we learn about an idyllic kingdom, agrarian and happy, where the royalty were called "beloved ones" and everyone knew them. Then something bad happens. Move forward to a young man as he journeys with his mentor/guardian and find ...more

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Aug 20, 2012 Megan rated it it was amazing

Shelves: ya, booksithoughti-dhatebuti-mlovin, historical-fiction, thiswritingamazesme, series

So, you go through life thinking you're one kind of reader. You definately are open to different things, but you know that you're not a romance or western lover...and you're not into fantasy of the Finnikin kind. And then you read Melina Marchetta. Holy Crap. I couldn't put this thing down. This huge book was lugged daily to the beach and eaten in 3 days. I can't remember the last time that a story transported me to a different time and place the way that Finnikin did. I loved everything about t ...more

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Mar 29, 2012 Dracolibris rated it it was amazing

Shelves: ya-lit, 2012, fantasy

This book was such a treat, it made me miss the fantasy genre as a whole. But I know that not all books are equal, and therefore, not many fantasy books are going to be this good.

In the peaceful and prosperous Kingdom of Lumatere, Finnikin has a charmed life. Son of the Captain of the King's Guard, he is being lovingly raised alongside the prince and princesses of the kingdom. All seems well, until everything is destroyed in a flash. During the five days of the unspeakable, their king and his f This book was such a treat, it made me miss the fantasy genre as a whole. But I know that not all books are equal, and therefore, not many fantasy books are going to be this good.

In the peaceful and prosperous Kingdom of Lumatere, Finnikin has a charmed life. Son of the Captain of the King's Guard, he is being lovingly raised alongside the prince and princesses of the kingdom. All seems well, until everything is destroyed in a flash. During the five days of the unspeakable, their king and his family are murdered, their kingdom invaded, and neighbor turns against neighbor as people are burned at the stake. The final horrible act comes in the form of a curse whispered from a powerful woman being burned at the stake, and this shuts the once bright land behind a veil of shadow and secrecy.

Finnikin escaped with his life, but not much else. For the past ten years, he has been traveling the lands, learning and training with the former king's advisor, Sir Topher. While on their travels, they try to keep help their kingdom's refugees and keep track of the scattered population of Lumatere, a sad census as they carefully record all the deaths (and very few births) of the few exiles who manged to escape before their homeland was shut off from them. But one day word comes to them of a special girl, gifted with arcane abilities, who whispers from her visions the secret hope ALL the exiles carry within their battered hearts- that the Crown Prince of Lumatere survived, and is ready to lead them all back to their homeland.

Once Sir Topher and Finnikin decide to find this girl and explore the possibility of her claims, an adventure is set is motion that carries them and the reader to the far corners of the land of Skuldenore, into darkness such as they never imagined, and hope that is brighter than they can manage to bear.

This is an extraordinary tale of a scattered people seeking the safety and comfort of home and family, and who are brave enough to risk everything they have for those goals. It is rare to find a book so wholly realized, a kingdom so desperate and a land and people so well-imagined and described, that the reader feels as if he/she were riding a horse alongside Finnikin and his companions. Immersive is the word that comes to mind, and addictive. I highly recommend this book to lovers of the fantasy genre, those seeking a courageous tale of adventure and magic, swords and sorcery. I think if you are interested in those ingredients, it will not matter if you are a boy or girl, and how many years you have seen. THIS is a book to be enjoyed. ...more

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Jan 17, 2010 Laura rated it liked it

Shelves: mt-bookpile-pre-2010, old-reads

The first 3/4 of this book were wonderful - but that last 1/4 dropped it from a 5 to a 3.

The story of Finnikin and Evanjalin, the "lost" land of Lumatere and their travels to break into the cursed kingdom really kept my interest; all the different lands they went to, their adventures with Froi, and the eventual return to Lumatere was written in such a way as to interest readers of both genders (I particularly liked the Southern Yuts). The author's choice of names that sounded just familiar enou ...more

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Mar 12, 2010 Emma rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: owned

[Pre review notes: I almost broke Wordpress trying to find a version of this review that I thought had been eaten. Turns out there were two versions! In the process of discovering that Wordpress started typing weird words at me and flashing "danger" on a blank screen. But it was worth it.]

A long time ago, before the five days of the unspeakable, Finnikin of the Rock dreamed he was to sacrifice a pound of flesh to save the royal house of Lumatere. Though only nine, Finnikin knew the dream was not ...more

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May 28, 2010 Sara ♥ rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: young-adult, romance, 2012, books-i-own, fantasy, 2010, challenge-fall-2010, challenge-summer-2012, 2014

January 17-20, 2014

I'm kinda bouncing back and forth between this and the Kindle edition from the library... I'm soooo excited to read ALL the way through the series this time! I'm trying to take it slow and savor it, you know? Read all the details I usually skim over... :)

July 19-21, 2012

LOVED this book the second time around, too! Yay! Excited to start on the sequel, Froi of the Exiles, to see how the story continues, and to see how far Froi has come in 3 years...

September 6-7, 2010

Holy crap! January 17-20, 2014

I'm kinda bouncing back and forth between this and the Kindle edition from the library... I'm soooo excited to read ALL the way through the series this time! I'm trying to take it slow and savor it, you know? Read all the details I usually skim over... :)

July 19-21, 2012

LOVED this book the second time around, too! Yay! Excited to start on the sequel, Froi of the Exiles, to see how the story continues, and to see how far Froi has come in 3 years...

September 6-7, 2010

Holy crap! Melina Marchetta is GOOD. Seriously... I've read 3 of her 4 books now and they've all made me cry... But in a good way, you know? She has a way of writing characters that make you care about them so deeply. Her other books are realistic fiction though, where this was straight-up fantasy, complete with maps at the front and supernatural forces...

So this book is about a country, Lumatere, that was savagely overthrown 10 years previously. The royal family was assassinated, and the nation was split in two: half the people escaped and were essentially "exiled" and the other half trapped inside the walls and subjected to a false king and his evil men. After the king was killed, a bunch of the people went Lord of the Flies on the people who live outside the walls (the forest-dwellers), who worship a different goddess than the majority of the people do, and they were slaughtered..... It was bad times... And the sorceress who lead the forest-dwellers put a curse on Lumatere as she was being burned at the stake.... Eek!

So the book revolves around Finnikin, a childhood friend of the prince (the king and queen also had like 5 daughters) and son of the captain of the king's guard, who is an exile... He meets up with a novice (like a nun, essentially), Evanjalin, who claims that the prince is still alive, so he and his mentor follow this girl around the continent (made up of 8 nations) on this crazy adventure that sometimes seems like a wild goose chase, all with the goal to win back Lumatere.

That sounds complicated, eh? I think the dust jacket did a much better job at summing that up... Anyway, it was so good! As the plot gradually unravels you're not sure what to think or what to believe, but WOW! It all comes together and makes perfect sense in the end! And the ending...... I just keep sighing contentedly.... :)

Now I just need to read Looking For Alibrandi and my life will be complete! ...more

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Feb 28, 2009 Maria Elmvang rated it liked it

Shelves: 2009, arc, not-owned, 3-stars, fantasy

I wasn't sure whether to give this 3 or 4 stars. It's good, but not great. I was interested enough in the plot and the characters, but it wasn't completely un-put-downable, and I occasionally found my thoughts wandering, leaving me to reread the same passage several times, because I couldn't concentrate properly on it the first time.

I was rather disappointed by this, because I so wanted to love it. I really enjoyed seeing a fantasy novel where magic wasn't in the main seat, and I grew to quite l ...more

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Sep 09, 2012 Hannah added it

Shelves: high-fantasy, ya, for-class-masters

I'm sorry, but this book was like pulling teeth, and I can't figure out how or why, because I found the idea of a nation of exiles, an adventure to get one's country back, and a secret princess really interesting. But it was so dense, so deeply in medias res that I never felt as if I was given the whole back story, and so badly assigned for a class in which we had less time to do homework and longer books to read that I couldn't make myself like it. With about 70 pages to go but the class alread ...more

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Mar 23, 2011 Susan rated it really liked it

Shelves: teen-fiction, teen-fiction-fantasy-sci-fi

I liked this very much, but got impatient with the slow pace in the last quarter of the book. Get on with it, already!

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Feb 13, 2010 Liz rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: 5-star, favorites, young-adult, fantasy

After loving Jellicoe Road, I assumed that Melina Marchetta plus high fantasy would be the ultimate combination for me. Luckily, I turned out to be right. Marchetta is a brilliant world builder who developed dynamic, engaging characters and wrote their story in a way that broke my heart.

Read my full review of this book and its sequels here:
http://www.consumedbybooks.com/2014/1...
...more

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Aug 29, 2014 CLM rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: series, ya, fantasy

Enjoying this but it was not well chosen for audio as it is harder to distinguish the many characters and countries than when reading - however, I bought a copy to give to my sister for her birthday.

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