Rise of the Darklings

Eventful without being action-packed, fully realized without being vivid, Crilley's Victorian fantasy reads like an athlete's qualifying round: one gets the sense he's holding back. Emily Snow is 12 years old and the sole support for her brother, William, since their parents disappeared. Sober and practical, Emily is an unlikely witness for a piskie (aka pixie) battle in a London alley, much less the rescuer of one small casualty. Her kindness pitches her into the intrigues between the Seelie and Unseelie Courts and their mutual hatred of the Invisible Order, a secret society of humans founded to hold back the incursion of faeries into the human world. Rational Emily is ill-equipped to negotiate this complex brew of motives and machinations—but when it comes to getting things done, there's never a doubt that she's a match for the grownups. An edge of uncertainty, though, would give the narrative that bit of emotional engagement it lacks. The planned second volume in the Invisible Order series puts Emily in a world very unlike the London she knows, which could provide the extra spark her adventures need. Ages 10–up. (Sept.)