Rise of the Evening Star

A dark plague threatens the inhabitants of the magical preserve of Fablehaven. The caretaker's grandchildren Kendra and Seth must summon all their courage and ingenuity, plus Kendra's developing fairy powers, to save it. Though he sometimes gets mired in an excess of recapitulation and info-dumping, Mull manages a complex world, high-stakes battles, and his ever-growing cast with emotional sincerity. (c) Copyright 2010. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted. All rights reserved.

Holding together better than its predecessor while continuing to feature plenty of heroism and hilarity, this follow-up to Fablehaven (2006) sends siblings Kendra and Seth back to the secret preserve for magical creatures guarded by their grandparents. This time, they are to find and protect a powerful Artifact being sought by the malign Society of the Evening Star. Not only are Kendra and Seth never sure who their real friends and foes are--the Society has a crafty way of inserting spies into the inner circle by helping to defeat manufactured threats--but searching for the Artifact requires facing any number of Fablehaven's genuinely dangerous residents. Seth in particular, though somewhat less reckless than before, still finds himself, for instance, passing through the bowels of a giant demon frog, then racing off to kill a zombie revenant so terrifying that it turns all who get too close into mindless albinos. Not stand-alone fare but rousing nonetheless, this second episode is rich in creatures, magic-working, hard-fought battles, plots within plots and chemistry among its main and supporting casts. More sequels are likely. (Fantasy. 12-15) Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.