Outcaste

Tribute #2

by Ellen Renner

Zara is on a quest for revenge - but is she amongst friends, or the bitterest of enemies?

Fleeing from the dangerous and powerful mage society she has betrayed, Zara has taken refuge in the Maker city of Gengst, where she knows she will face persecution and death if her identity is uncovered. She must live without magic, and even though she can finally be with the man she loves, her new life is far from the utopia she had dreamt it would be.

As the Knowledge Seekers work together to build machines powerful enough to end the centuries-long war between the mages and the non-magical Makers, Zara finds her loyalties and love tested to breaking point. She must face the evil that is her heritage, uncover the truth behind the childhood tragedy that haunts her - and find the strength to believe in herself.

Genres: Fantasy, Young Adult

Paperback

First published March 5, 2015

About the author

Ellen Renner was born in the USA, but came to England in her twenties, married here, and now lives in an old house in Devon with her husband and son. Ellen originally trained as a painter and surrounds herself with sketches of her characters as she writes. She spins wool as well as stories, knitting and weaving when time allows. She plays the violin, fences (badly!) and collects teapots and motorcycles.

Her first book, CASTLE OF SHADOWS, won the Cornerstones Wow Factor Competition, the 2010 North East Book Award and was chosen for both THE INDEPENDENT and THE TIMES summer reading lists and, along with the sequel CITY OF THIEVES, was included on THE TIMES list of best children's books of 2010. TRIBUTE is the first in a YA fantasy series.

Reviews

[Bee · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book took a more 'social commentary' tone in the middle, which was intriguing but doesn't distract from the fact that nothing happens until the very very end, and even then the way the action scenes are describes is a little bit cringe-worhty.

[Peter · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nice touch in the final showdown. Well done, Bruin.

[Kacy · Rating 2 out of 5]

There were many times during reading this book that I just wanted to stop reading. The book has a fairly interesting world that never gets expanded on (there are 7 gods and we only learn about two of them?). The main character has absolutely no character development what-so-ever. She starts off in the book being a character who doesn't listen or do what she's told and she remains that way till the very end of the book. The story itself is filled with too many convenient plot devices that come up out of no where. Nothing that happened felt natural to the stories arc.

It sucked because I was actually interested in this world and in a few of the characters. The first few pages were very promising too. I noticed a big improvement in the writing at the start of chapter one and I got really excited to read it. That was later ruined by the constant need for Zara's inner monologue to retell events that had happened in the first book (which can be good if done right but this wasn't).

One of the only things that kept me reading this book was Otter, who was one of the only characters I found interesting (which was probably due to the fact that Zara's empath abilities don't work on him). In fact he is the only reason that the book is 2 stars and not one (because he is a star). He kept the story interesting and it was good to see a character who knew what they were doing (though there were times when his character was very cliche).