From Booklist
Kindling tracks the paths of four teenagers in a world ravaged by the conquering Mosul Empire. The Virginia Free States have fallen to the Mosul advance, leaving Argo Weaver fatherless and fleeing north to Albany, desperately clinging to its freedom. En route, he encounters Yancy Slide, a fellow said to have mystical powers, and the Rangers, and Yancy informs him of the prophecy of the Four. Complementing Argo and Yancy are Cordelia Blakeney, an Albany aristocrat whom an ill-advised dirigible joyride has put in a Mosul base camp; Jessamine, concubine of a Teuton officer; and artist Raphael Vega, of conquered Hispania, drafted into the Mosul army and sent to the New World to die. They all meet in a chaotic denouement in the Mosul camp, battling the strange Dark Things of the high priest of Zaithan, Quadaron-Ahrach. This promising beginning of an alternate history saga hints that there is something bigger about Yancy, for he's nearly impossible to kill, and occasionally refers to other worlds, including our own.
Regina SchroederCopyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
Review
"An inventive, surprising, and always entertaining series."
