The Dream of the Stone - Softcover

Grade 6-10-- Not long before her 15th birthday, bookish Sarah Lucas shoulders a heroic task: she must save herself, her beloved brother Sam, two planets, and the entire universe from a cosmic evil called Umbra. Its earthly manifestation, a sinister research institute called CIPHER, has entangled the precociously intelligent Sam in a project involving travel to distant stars. After Sarah's parents try to persuade him to quit CIPHER, they are killed in a plane crash, leaving Sarah alone to face the menacing Dr. Zvalus. Angel Muldoon, a handsome dropout with a head full of poetry, turns up to help Sarah fulfill her destiny. The story's strengths are its likable characters and vivid settings. But incident and explanation clog the action in an overly complicated plot that is studded with literary references and allusions to past fantasies. In audacity of concept, plot details, and underlying philosophy, the book recalls L'Engle's A Wrinkle in Time (Farrar, 1962). The ending, which finds Sam and Sarah safe in Oxford's Norham Gardens, reads like a homage to Penelope Lively's flawless The House in Norham Gardens (Dutton, 1974; o.p.). By comparison, the metaphors in Askounis's book are strained and overstated, their connection to Sarah's emotional trajectory more melodramatic than illuminating. Yet the novel's romantic subplot and inventiveness may please dedicated lovers of the genre, so add it to larger collections. --Margaret A. Chang, North Adams State College,
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Misfortunes multiply: Sarah's parents are killed in a plane crash; she's sent to live in the City; her brilliant brother Sam disappears from his mysterious Institute. The bright spot is half-gypsy Angel: When a mysterious stone appears from Sam, followed by enemies from the Institute, it is Angel who accompanies Sarah on a dash through time and space. They land on a green-skied world with sentient trees and peaceful dragons. There, Sarah finds that she must restore the stone to the arch of the world to repel the loathsome shadow, the Umbra. Sam is besieged by his Institute's shadow-tainted head, but together they restore the stone, turn away the shadow, and return home, while Angel stays to reign as King. It's a rather sweet hodgepodge with echoes from all over: Hawking's quantum wormholes, Cooper's rising Dark, a hint of time-travel paradox, even some Penelope Lively: Sam and Sarah return to their great- aunts' home in Norham Gardens. Good triumphs, but the course of true love runs rough. A smoothly written first novel--a bit derivative, but that won't deter fans of the genre. (Fiction. 12+) -- Copyright ©1993, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.