Heart of Valor

Rating:
Summary: No Better or Worse than "Night of the Solstice"
Review: 'Heart of Valor' is set a year and a half after the events of the previous book in this two-part series (though both can be read as stand-alone novels), in which four siblings helped the sorceress Morgana Shee prevent the evil sorcerer Cadal Forge from emerging through her magic teleporting mirrors and causing havoc on the world. At the end of 'Night of the Solstice' the doorways to the Wildworld were closed, Cadal was destroyed, and his ally Thia Pendriel managed to escape with the immensely powerful Heart of Valor, a magical gemstone.

All has been quiet since then, with the quirky Janie studying magic under Morgana's guidence, Claudia enjoying her newfound gift to speak to animals, and Alys and Charles simply getting on with their lives. But after what seems like a typical Californian earthquake, the children and the sorceress begin to suspect that Thia is up to something - perhaps trying to re-open the portal between the Wildworld and the Stillworld. Morgana hurries north in order to prevent her, while the children begin to experience dangers of their own - the park is now full of strange and dangerous creatures, bizzare signs can be seen in the sky, and finally their house is attacked by groups of strange elementals. With the sword Caliborn, that gives Alys dreams of ancient Arthurian lore, the children hurry to find Morgana and help prevent Thia from whatever she is planning next...

If in the last book you thought the name 'Morgana Shee' rang a bell, your suspicions will be put to rest here - in the Arthurian legends that L. J. Smith mixes into this book, Morgana plays the part of Morgan LeFay *and* the Lady of Lake, set against the tricky, but somewhat malevolent Merlin, in an interesting re-working of the old myths.

However, the structure of this book is rather shaky - after conveniently disposing of the children's parents via an overseas voyage, the children do not participate in much of the action till over halfway through the book when they go after Morgana, and the events occuring in the Wildworld (when it should get *really* interesting) are jammed into the last few chapters of the book. What was supposed to be the climactic showdown between Morgana and Thia lasts less than a paragraph, and the ending is so hurridly wrapped-up that readers might feel a bit short changed (plus confused at how Alys plans to spend a year in the Wildworld without her parent's knowledge).

L. J. Smith's protagonists are always female - three of her four children are girls, and she's at a complete loss as how to handle her only named male character Charles, who ends up being merely a device to draw yet another female character -Elwyn Silverhair- into the plot. I'm all for strong female roles (I am a girl, by the way), but L. J. doesn't to much to extend her reading material to the opposite of sex. If you're a parent looking to get your son/nephew/grandson/whatever interested in books, unfortunatly 'Heart of Valor' probably won't help you out.

However, despite its faults, this book is a reasonable, entertaining read, and on par with its predecessor 'Night of the Solstice'. L. J. Smith went on to better fame with her teenage-horror-romance novels, but there are a few hints of her books to come in her first fantasy novels, for instance: the dog attack here resembles that in "The Fury", Claudia's ability to speak to animals is like that of Anna Whiteraven's in the "Dark Visions" trilogy, and the name 'Thia' pops up again in her Night World book "Spellbinder", with different spelling: 'Thea'.

Rating:
Summary: A terrific book, but not quite as good as the first one.
Review: For some reason, I seem to be reading more and more Arthur books completely by accident. This book was really good. I wish I could have read the first book, Night of the Solstice, but it is nowhere to be found. Anyway, four siblings become heroes of Wildworld through their own inclinations. This one will get you hooked.

Rating:
Summary: A Wonderful Book
Review: I read the whole book in a matter of 3-4 hours, I just couldn't put it down! I'm dissapointed that I could never (and still can't) find one single copy of Night of the Solstice. I have read Heart of Valor a countless number of times. L.J. Smith is the only adolescent author that I buy and read their books nowadays (I'm 16, but I started reading adult novels when I was 7). That is really something too, and I give all of her books that I have read great! reviews.

Rating:
Summary: Better then "The Night of the Solstice"
Review: Out of "The Night of the Solstice" and "Heart of Valor", "Heart of Valor" was the best, but not by much. You can still tell that this was written for younger readers, and in my opion, this book started out to slowly. The plot didn't really get that interesting until the middle of the book, but by tht time, I lost interest in it. One of the reasons I probably didn't like about these books was that Im totally addicted to the way romance, magic, fantasy, action, (sometimes) despair and drama are mixed in L J Smiths books, but this and its sequel were missing the romance angle. Try reading her later stuff for a really good read.

Rating:
Summary: A Wonderful Book
Review: This book is the sequel to L.J. Smith's first book, "The Night of the Solstice." In it, four siblings come together to help the sorceress Morgana Shee, who is the only hope of their world's safety. I enjoyed this book more than the first one because it combines Arthurian lore, other legends, and an original plot, which is a talent L.J. Smith has continued to show in her more recent books. Unlike her recent Night World series, these books were more for children than young adults, and focus more on fantasy than romance. They are wonderfully simple, with an easy-to-follow format, but contain things that even adults can enjoy. Unfortunately, relationships and characters, especially the underused Morgana, are not explored very deeply, but this book is perfect for readers of any age...especially fans of magic and legends.