Heart of Valour 2 [Paperback]

Heart of Valor is set a year and a half after the events of The Night of the Solstice, in which four siblings helped the sorceress Morgana Shee prevent an evil sorcerer from invading the world through her house of magic mirrors. At the conclusion of the book, the doorways to the Wildworld were closed, the sorcerer 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 guidance, shy 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 find her, whilst the children face dangers of their own. The park is filled with strange creatures, bizarre signs can be seen in the sky, and their house is attacked by groups of strange elementals.

With the sword Caliborn in her possession, giving Alys dreams of ancient Arthurian lore, she and her siblings hurry to find Morgana and help prevent Thia from whatever she's planning next...

This book and its predecessor were the first novels written by L.J. Smith, now best known for The Vampire Diaries and the Night World series, after she moved from fantasy to the supernatural-romance genre. Though it makes for an interesting read, it's clear that this is a first-time effort from a newbie author, especially when compared with her later, more polished, works. The most glaring problem is the narrative of the book; quite simply, it's a confusingly told story that's hard to keep track of. Despite pages and pages of exposition, we never seem to have a clear idea of what's going on or why, with a lot of capitalized terms thrown about that are virtually meaningless (including the Elixir of Days, the Mirror of Heaven, the Forgotten Gems, the Chaotic Zones, Gold Staffs, White Staffs, Black Staffs, the Weerul Council, the Golden Age of Findahl - the list goes on).

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 occurring in the Wildworld (when things should get *really* interesting) are jammed into the last few chapters of the book. The world-building is rather clumsy, with concepts and plot devices popping out of nowhere, and nothing properly explained. Perhaps a reader will be on more stable ground if they've recently read The Night of the Solstice, but ultimately `Heart of Valor' reads a bit like alphabet soup: muddled.

There was a good story here, but L.J. Smith wasn't quite accomplished enough to tell it properly. The recent resurgence of interest in her work means the republication of her older books, but it's a pity she wasn't given the opportunity to rewrite them a little as well to iron out some of the glitches. Still, fans of her later books may enjoy recognizing several ideas that she recycles in her other books, such as a dog attack that resembles the one in The Vampire Diaries, Claudia's ability to talk to animals being reminiscent of Anna Whiteraven's gift in Dark Visions, and the use of the name Thia in Night World (though with different spelling).

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 and somewhat malevolent Merlin. It's an interesting re-working of the old myths, one that she successfully ties in with her own mythos.

On their own terms this book and its predecessor as rather sub-par fantasy stories, but for fans of Smith who hold an interest in the evolution of her writing, they make for novelty reading. She's obviously come a long way since these early days, and I enjoyed having a taste of how she began her writing career.

› Go to Amazon.com to see the review  3.0 out of 5 stars