Review of 'Song of the Quarkbeast: The Chronicles of Kazam, Book 2' on 'Goodreads'
5 stars
Quite the excellent read, and comfortably stressfully lighthearted.
304 pages
English language
Published Sept. 3, 2013 by HMH Books for Young Readers.
Song of the Quarkbeast: The Chronicles of Kazam, Book 2
4 stars
(6 reviews)
Review of 'Song of the Quarkbeast: The Chronicles of Kazam, Book 2' on 'Goodreads'
3 stars
The Song of the Quarkbeast is more of a children's book than a YA book.
I'm usually OK with YA and Terry Pratchett's [b:Diggers|989030|Diggers (Bromeliad Trilogy, #2)|Terry Pratchett|https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1180031033s/989030.jpg|62480] trilogy while written for children still managed to keep me entertained.
The main theme of lower class foundlings fighting upper class snobbery and corruption simply doesn't appeal to me. Perhaps because I'm not British.
Review of 'Song of the Quarkbeast: The Chronicles of Kazam, Book 2' on 'Goodreads'
3 stars
Continuing my New Year's tradition of reading a Jasper Fforde novel. This was fast and didn't have as many layers as a Fforde novel usually does it it was still fun and the end still made me gasp. I'm excited that there's a 4th book to this trilogy because I like this world.
SBWright reviewed Song of the Quarkbeast by Jasper Fforde
Review of 'Song of the Quarkbeast' on 'Goodreads'
2 stars
I was looking forward to this book. In general I find reading young adult novels to be a breath of fresh air and I was hoping that The Song of the Quarkbeast would live up to its press as a magical adventure with a bit of nerdy wordplay.
The Story
Young Jennifer Strange, a foundling, is left in charge of Kazam, the more ethical of the two companies that perform magic.
Their newly renamed competitor iMagic is up to no good, manipulating King Snodd into ordering a contest between the wizards of both companies; the losers to merge with the winning agency.
Jennifer expects to win, that is until they begin losing sorcerers to Runix powered spells and trumped up magical misdemeanours.
The search for magical allies results in the revelation that nefarious plans are afoot.
My Issues
Initially I liked the word play, the short tangents away from the …
I was looking forward to this book. In general I find reading young adult novels to be a breath of fresh air and I was hoping that The Song of the Quarkbeast would live up to its press as a magical adventure with a bit of nerdy wordplay.
The Story
Young Jennifer Strange, a foundling, is left in charge of Kazam, the more ethical of the two companies that perform magic.
Their newly renamed competitor iMagic is up to no good, manipulating King Snodd into ordering a contest between the wizards of both companies; the losers to merge with the winning agency.
Jennifer expects to win, that is until they begin losing sorcerers to Runix powered spells and trumped up magical misdemeanours.
The search for magical allies results in the revelation that nefarious plans are afoot.
My Issues
Initially I liked the word play, the short tangents away from the movement of the story, and the jokes or allusions that might escape younger readers.
I usually give a novel 25 % of its length, or about 100 pages to hook me in, some novels require an adjustment due to style. I found that by a third of the way through The Song of the Quarkbeast, I wasn’t. The witty wordplay and divergent descriptions began to feel overdone and I longed for the story to pick up pace.
I also had issues with Jennifer. She seemed to me to be a bit wooden, perhaps standoffish – I didn’t feel she was a convincing 16 year old girl.
Recommendations
My 15 year old self would have liked this book, it was reminiscent of Douglas Adams and the sense of humour that produced the Deeper Meaning of Liff, but even then I think I might also have had an issue with the pacing.
I am hesitant to recommend it to all but the hard-core book nerds amongst the teen population, those who will find endless amusement in descriptions of the history, characters, oddities of the Kingdom of Hereford and who have the ability to make the connection with their real world equivalents.
I struggled to enjoy this one.
