Finnikin of the Rock [Paperback]

It has been ten years, since the dark days when the royal family was murdered. A curse was put on the kingdom of Lumatere, separating it from the outside world and trapping others inside. Finnikin of the Rock and his guardian, Sir Topher have been traveling in the surrounding lands, since then. They have been making the Book of Lumatere by visiting refuge camps. Finnikin is summoned to meet Evanjalin, a young women with an incredible claim: the heir to the throne of Lumatere, Prince Balthazar is alive. Evajalin also has an amazing power, she can walk the dreams of those in Lumatere.
Evanjalin is determined to return home and she is the only one who can lead them to the heir. As they journey together, Finnikin is affected by her arrogance . . . and her hope. He begins to believe he will see his childhood friend, Prince Balthazar, again. And that their cursed people will be able to enter Lumatere and be reunited with those trapped inside. He even believes he will find his imprisoned father.
But Evanjalin is definitely not what see seems. And the truth will test not only Finnikin's faith in her . . . but in himself.
The characters were amazing. Finnikin was smart and an interesting person to read about. Evanjalin was also very interesting. I liked the relationship that builds between them and how they weren't best friends forever in five pages. That their relationship took most of the book to fully work out. The plot has it's slow spots, but overall is a compelling and entertaining. I kept on looking at the map at the beginning of the book and trying to figure out, where in the blazes they were at times. The world of Skuldendore was original. The writing was phenomenal. I seriously wasn't sure if Marchetta would be able to write fantasy, but she was and it was amazing. I recommend this book to those that love fantasy and those that don't. You will not be disappointed.

You know when you see something truly breathtaking and your in awe over how beautiful it is, well I think that is the right thing to say about Finnikin of the Rock. It is everything that makes a story perfect, but the book talks about a dystopian world. Melina Marchetta creates a story that has hauntingly real imagery, with words that flow nicely like a calm lake. She gives enough description to easily understand the situation and the word, and won't have readers falling asleep. The maps in the book are easy to follow, and I found myself looking at it quite a few times. The world is well built and it's easy to picture, it is also unique in the fact that you can see the cultural difference between each land as the characters travel through it. The emotion is strong and well put and will have readers at lost for words. The readers can really feel sad, angry and horrified as they read about the exile and fever camps, and hear of the five days of the unspeakable. But you will also feel hope that maybe, by the end of the book the people will regain hold of Lumatere. The characters are developed nicely, in a way that will have you make a soft spot for each one of them in your heart. Evanjalin and Froi were probably my favorite two characters. Evanjalin was such a strong, passionate and hopeful women/girl in the story. Anybody would envy that, and I certainly was proud to read about a strong women lead. Froi was someone who you hate at first, but then after hearing his POV you really feel for him. He's just a mischievous s little boy who envies people around him and wants to belong. Something that anyone can relate to. A lot of the situations were truthful, and how they were dealt with was faithful to how I can imagine them being laid out. Example of this is Trevanion's & Lady Beatriss relationship.
The story's narration, which was from different characters POV, was amazingly well crafted. The romance in the story (between Evanjalin & Finnikin) was really well developed. Probably the first real romance that I truly enjoyed the development of. It wasn't to slow and it wasn't to fast, it was just right. It felt honest and good.
Some of the plot twists were a bit obvious. What I would of liked to seen developed more was more knowledge of the impostor king. Who was he? I also think the battle to regain Lumatere should of been more descriptive and longer. It was a bit short, and was sort of a downer as it was what the whole book was leading up to.

Usually I don't read fantasy, I find it to confusing. I enjoyed Eragon but found it confusing. It might of been because I was young when I read it. But this novel wasn't confusing and probably the first fantasy I actually really enjoyed. I really hope there is a sequel, though this book does work as a stand-alone to. So when I was reading the author's bio, I was very surprised to find that this was her first fantasy: "I was told often that I couldn't write fantasy unless I had read all the greats and knew the conventions well, but I think the first step to writing good fantasy is knowing this world we live in well. I wanted to look closely at that---where loss of faith, loss of homeland and identity, displacement of spirit, and breakdown of community are common--- because these are the scenes in today's media that affect me most. In this sense, the book is a search for identity in the same way that my other novels are." -Melina Marchetta. You wouldn't think after reading this book, that this was her first fantasy. And if this review doesn't intrigue you enough, well then take it from Kristin Cashore: "The world of this book is dark and beautiful and utterly believable; and, as I've come to expect of Marchetta's work, the characters are wonderfully complex. Here is an author who writes fantasy as well as she writes realism -- and in the case of Melina Marchetta, that's high praise, indeed!"

The last thing I want to talk about is the ending. BEST ENDING EVER. I mean I've read endings that are satisfying and good, but never really the best. This ending is the first that I really enjoyed and couldn't stop thinking about afterwords. It was romantic, funny and ends the book in a way that wants me to give it 10 stars. The last impression I had of this book, was brilliant. And I know my review probably won't sum up how amazing this book was, but I hope everyone gives this one a try.

I've been looking forward to this book ever since I finished Jellicoe Road and heard Melina Marchetta had a fantasy novel already out in Australia. It took awhile but eventually word went out that the wonderfully titled FINNIKIN OF THE ROCK would be making its American debut this February and I settled back, somewhat impatiently, to wait. Jellicoe Road was my first experience reading a Marchetta book and I consider it a pretty much perfect reading experience. To say that my anticipation for her next book was high would be something of an understatement. Though the fact that it was high fantasy gave me some pause. I read quite a bit of fantasy of all kinds and I was fascinated to see how the very modern, fragmented style of writing I loved in Jellicoe Road translated to such a wildly different genre.

Once the son of the King of Lumatere's warlord, Finnikin of the Rock ran wild and happy with his best friends and rivals Prince Balthazar and Lucian of the Monts. As boys they make a blood pact to protect their homeland no matter what. Then, in Finnikan's ninth year, the five days of the unspeakable occur and the world changes. An imposter ascends to the throne, butchering the royal family and causing a curse to be laid on the the few remaining survivors. The walls of Lumatere close and the rest of its mangled population are scattered to the four winds. Years later, his mother long dead, his father long gone, Finnikin is a young man. Having spent his life wandering neighboring lands with his mentor Sir Topher, he refuses to give up hope of returning and reclaiming the land he loved and lost. When they are joined by the young novice Evanjalin, Finnikin is certain the off putting young woman who is sworn to silence will do nothing but slow them down. It is not long, however, before he discovers he could not be more wrong. For Evanjalin herself burns with a thirst for justice and it will be all Finnikin can do to keep up with her.

Truly this book has the makings of an absolutely divine epic fantasy. I was all set to fall in love. And the first section is very encouraging. However, not long after Finnikin and Sir Topher encounter Evanjalin, I began to run into problems on two fronts. First, the overall storyline began sounding eerily familiar and I realized it reminded me strongly of another epic fantasy I love and have read several times--Tigana by Guy Gavriel Kay. Unfortunately, once I made the connection, I could not get it out of my head. The once lovely land fallen to a conqueror's control, all but wiped out and a curse laid upon its survivors that they may always remember and never reclaim what was theirs. The rebels in hiding, circling their forbidden home, determined to mount a rebellion, fulfill a prophecy, and restore a lost royalty. And though I found these resemblances uncanny, I still would have happily sunk into Ms. Marchetta's writing were it not for the characters. They were so cold, so far removed from me as the reader. As I said, all of the elements I love were present--the deceptively simple young woman with an agenda of her own, the dispossessed young man desperate to become a man like his heroic father, the dire curse, the mysterious disappearances. A few hundred pages in I was struggling to figure out what was wrong with me, why I wasn't enjoying this read, when it suddenly occurred to me that I didn't like the characters. Not one. I didn't care at all what happened to them. And, as a result, I went through the entire novel essentially unaffected by the sweeping events of the tale for a lack of caring and closeness. I found both Finnikin and Evanjalin in large part tiresome, petty, and prickly (not in a good way) and could not for the life of me feel the connection they supposedly had. Though I was told it was there, it never felt real to me. There was so much potential that just never found a grounding point. I've held off writing this review because I felt so bad about my reaction (or lack thereof), especially considering how much I assumed I'd like it. I even took time off to make sure it wasn't simply my mood at the time. But when I came back nothing had changed. They were still them and I was still me and we none of us cared much for each other so it was best we part ways. Now, I am definitely a lone dissenting voice on this one. So I certainly recommend you give it a shot because, though there was a decided barrier between me and them, I could tell that if these characters turn out to be your cuppa there's a good chance you'll love it even if I couldn't.

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