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Leagues and Legends #2
Echoes of a Giantkiller
Barely graduated from the Academy, our four young adventurers find themselves pulled toward the northern mountains.
Laney is looking for justice, Jack for good news. Grey is looking for his sister, and Rupert is looking to get them all out in one piece.
But the mountains are full of old stories and young ghosts, mage slavers and vigilantes, secrets. Things will not stay hidden. They will not stay safe. It will not be kind.
Laney is looking for justice, Jack for good news. Grey is looking for his sister, and Rupert is looking to get them all out in one piece.
But the mountains are full of old stories and young ghosts, mage slavers and vigilantes, secrets. Things will not stay hidden. They will not stay safe. It will not be kind.
325 pages, ebook
First published November 25, 2015
4 people are currently reading
85 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 22 of 22 reviews
December 6, 2015
So far, E. Lomax has managed to beat the odds and overcome what I like to think of as the bane of all trilogies. If there is a great book at the start of a trilogy, the odds are that it will be the best of the three. We've seen it before and we will see it again. Book one is usually good, two is OK and three is bleh. Leagues and Legends has managed to overcome this spectacularly.
Beanstalk was great. It was a very cool book, and I really loved the feel of it. Now, after reading Echoes of a Giantkiller, it feels like a really long and really awesome prologue, which sure says something about this book.
Think of it this way, Beanstalk is like the cute guy you have a crush on in high school. Echoes of a Giantkiller is like his much hotter brother.
Whereas Beanstalk definitely was more of a character study type story, this one had a lot more plot. Within the first few pages we get a major bombshell dropped on us, and they just keep coming down like it's rain in Vancouver. Plot twists at every turn. Echoes of a Giantkiller kept up the same wonderful feel of Beanstalk, but improved it tenfold, with more wonderful character development.
The one thing that still throws me in this series is the time period. I know that this is a fantasy world, and thus the timeline of technological progression from our world does not apply, but it still feels very strange to me. There's sword fighting and horse drawn carriages, yet at the same time, the telephone and pick-up trucks exist. It feels sort of Harry Potterish in this aspect, but at the same time, not really. The muggle world and the wizard world were sort of separated. This bizarre combination of the two feels utterly foreign.
I don't really want to say much more, because spoilers, but wow. Cliffy at the end. Did not see that, nor did I figure out how the heck that happened.
Here's to hoping that book 3 comes out soon and keeps up this trend!
Beanstalk was great. It was a very cool book, and I really loved the feel of it. Now, after reading Echoes of a Giantkiller, it feels like a really long and really awesome prologue, which sure says something about this book.
Think of it this way, Beanstalk is like the cute guy you have a crush on in high school. Echoes of a Giantkiller is like his much hotter brother.
Whereas Beanstalk definitely was more of a character study type story, this one had a lot more plot. Within the first few pages we get a major bombshell dropped on us, and they just keep coming down like it's rain in Vancouver. Plot twists at every turn. Echoes of a Giantkiller kept up the same wonderful feel of Beanstalk, but improved it tenfold, with more wonderful character development.
The one thing that still throws me in this series is the time period. I know that this is a fantasy world, and thus the timeline of technological progression from our world does not apply, but it still feels very strange to me. There's sword fighting and horse drawn carriages, yet at the same time, the telephone and pick-up trucks exist. It feels sort of Harry Potterish in this aspect, but at the same time, not really. The muggle world and the wizard world were sort of separated. This bizarre combination of the two feels utterly foreign.
I don't really want to say much more, because spoilers, but wow. Cliffy at the end. Did not see that, nor did I figure out how the heck that happened.
Here's to hoping that book 3 comes out soon and keeps up this trend!
October 16, 2017
*6 stars*
"Such a brave little boy, lying and beguiling your way into people’s hearts, so they might come and die beside you, just to make you a story worth remembering."
Beanstalk was a good book and I thoroughly enjoyed it. Echoes of a Giantkiller tore out my heart and ripped it into little pieces, and left me with a breathless longing for MORE oh my god MORE.
The plot was very interesting. Jack and Grey both have pasts absolutely shrouded in mystery, which are revealed piece by piece as the book goes on. We already know the basics, but it's the little fillers that really drove their pasts home into my heart; Jack's relationship with his friends, the people he helped and saved as well as his enemies, Grey's with his family. They intersected in spoilery ways which made me tremble with the sheer joys of extreme irony. When Grey finally darkly muttered that he was the spitting image of irony, I couldn't stop snickering for half a minute.
Large parts of this book is kept aside for mourning a posthumous character, and it just- really bloody WORKS. This character is someone we have only known in passing before and I wasn't expecting to break down multiple times when seeing him discussed on the page. The pain and the love involved in the life of this one character alone- the little lines about him in the flashbacks (ish) and the things that were said about him afterwards; everything was heartrendingly beautiful. I was leaking tears for most of these segments.
"Vic'try!" Oh my god.
This book also introduces new characters and I really love all of them. Their pasts, their motivations, their lives- all of it falls into place perfectly within the overall plot, enhancing it without distracting from it. This story is very much one which the characters drive forward, and the characterization is so well-defined and consistent that it makes for a perfectly lovely plot.
Echoes of a Giantkiller retains all the positives of Beanstalk, and adds in elements which make up for the shortcomings of the previous book. The antagonists are interesting and feeling-inspiring in their own right (THE SEERESS AND THE SPIDER I CANNOT), and the plot has so much bearing on the lives of the characters that I was biting my nails the whole time. I am now even more attached to the Baby Rangers than I was before, and many of the new characters have joined my "MY HEART MY SOUL MY LOVES" lineup. And the lines! So many beautiful lines! I have fully half the book highlighted.
It took me a long time to write the review because I wasn't sure how I was going to do justice to all the feelings it inspired in me and I'm still certain that I've not done it adequately. Ah well.
"Such a brave little boy, lying and beguiling your way into people’s hearts, so they might come and die beside you, just to make you a story worth remembering."
Beanstalk was a good book and I thoroughly enjoyed it. Echoes of a Giantkiller tore out my heart and ripped it into little pieces, and left me with a breathless longing for MORE oh my god MORE.
The plot was very interesting. Jack and Grey both have pasts absolutely shrouded in mystery, which are revealed piece by piece as the book goes on. We already know the basics, but it's the little fillers that really drove their pasts home into my heart; Jack's relationship with his friends, the people he helped and saved as well as his enemies, Grey's with his family. They intersected in spoilery ways which made me tremble with the sheer joys of extreme irony. When Grey finally darkly muttered that he was the spitting image of irony, I couldn't stop snickering for half a minute.
Large parts of this book is kept aside for mourning a posthumous character, and it just- really bloody WORKS. This character is someone we have only known in passing before and I wasn't expecting to break down multiple times when seeing him discussed on the page. The pain and the love involved in the life of this one character alone- the little lines about him in the flashbacks (ish) and the things that were said about him afterwards; everything was heartrendingly beautiful. I was leaking tears for most of these segments.
"Vic'try!" Oh my god.
This book also introduces new characters and I really love all of them. Their pasts, their motivations, their lives- all of it falls into place perfectly within the overall plot, enhancing it without distracting from it. This story is very much one which the characters drive forward, and the characterization is so well-defined and consistent that it makes for a perfectly lovely plot.
Echoes of a Giantkiller retains all the positives of Beanstalk, and adds in elements which make up for the shortcomings of the previous book. The antagonists are interesting and feeling-inspiring in their own right (THE SEERESS AND THE SPIDER I CANNOT), and the plot has so much bearing on the lives of the characters that I was biting my nails the whole time. I am now even more attached to the Baby Rangers than I was before, and many of the new characters have joined my "MY HEART MY SOUL MY LOVES" lineup. And the lines! So many beautiful lines! I have fully half the book highlighted.
It took me a long time to write the review because I wasn't sure how I was going to do justice to all the feelings it inspired in me and I'm still certain that I've not done it adequately. Ah well.
June 8, 2021
2021 read: This book is fucking amazing and the stuff the author sets up and parallels just keeps blowing my mind. So rewarding to reread.
First or second read: The characters introduced in Beanstalk go on a road trip! Well, not exactly, but they're on a mission to the mountains. Jack hasn't heard from his old friend George in awhile, and Grey received a troubling forged letter that leads him to believe his sister is in trouble, so off to the mountains they go, with Laney as the big guns (literally) and Rupert to oversee it all.
The story is all about reckoning with the past. Jack encounters the people who dubbed him "Giantkiller" when he was part of a trio of vigilante monster killers: Jack the Giantkiller, St. George the Dragon Slayer, and The Pied Piper.
Grey unhappily reunites with his family, and has to confront the whole mage-slave situation that forced him to flee the mountains in the first place.
There are several new characters introduced, the most notable being George the Dragon Slayer herself. Yes, herself. George is given point-of-view chapters, and her story is as deep and richly woven as the four main characters. She is a fantastic addition to the narrative.
One thing I loved about this book was the conflict between Jack and Laney. They have a pretty big issue to overcome, and are on the outs with each other, but Laney still looks to Jack as a leader in combat situations. She's upset with him but still recognizes his authority in battle. It is one of the most mature fights between characters I've ever seen, full of honesty and giving each other space when requested. You can tell these two characters care for each other and respect each other, which makes the conflict more difficult to unravel.
This book also ends on a pretty big cliffhanger, so be prepared for that.
I'll end this review with one of my favorite pieces of dialogue, as spoken by Grey:
First or second read: The characters introduced in Beanstalk go on a road trip! Well, not exactly, but they're on a mission to the mountains. Jack hasn't heard from his old friend George in awhile, and Grey received a troubling forged letter that leads him to believe his sister is in trouble, so off to the mountains they go, with Laney as the big guns (literally) and Rupert to oversee it all.
The story is all about reckoning with the past. Jack encounters the people who dubbed him "Giantkiller" when he was part of a trio of vigilante monster killers: Jack the Giantkiller, St. George the Dragon Slayer, and The Pied Piper.
Grey unhappily reunites with his family, and has to confront the whole mage-slave situation that forced him to flee the mountains in the first place.
There are several new characters introduced, the most notable being George the Dragon Slayer herself. Yes, herself. George is given point-of-view chapters, and her story is as deep and richly woven as the four main characters. She is a fantastic addition to the narrative.
One thing I loved about this book was the conflict between Jack and Laney. They have a pretty big issue to overcome, and are on the outs with each other, but Laney still looks to Jack as a leader in combat situations. She's upset with him but still recognizes his authority in battle. It is one of the most mature fights between characters I've ever seen, full of honesty and giving each other space when requested. You can tell these two characters care for each other and respect each other, which makes the conflict more difficult to unravel.
This book also ends on a pretty big cliffhanger, so be prepared for that.
I'll end this review with one of my favorite pieces of dialogue, as spoken by Grey:
"I'm not courageous, I'm just rude."
November 25, 2020
A lot happens in this book, a lot of secrets hinted at in the first book are finally revealed. One thing I really liked about this book and this author is that characters make mistakes and then deal with the fall out of that. Sometimes they try to fix them or apologize, other times they just move on, and all those choices all have repercussions. Relationships grow and change and THANKFULLY progress beyond the "oh no you lied once about this one thing and I don't care that you have this super reasonable reason, you are dead to me even though you are my best friend and I would forgive you anything" teenager drama.
December 7, 2015
i read the last chapter and now i will be screaming until remember the dust comes out. i apologize for the noise levels in advance
4 stars
4 stars
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
September 30, 2018
If I could give this book six stars, I would. Beanstalk was already one of my top reads of the year, but this one blows it away.
December 24, 2017
Picking up not long after the events of Beanstalk, Echoes builds on the established characters and arcs of book 1, while introducing several new faces who add their own depth and conflict to the tale.
Outside of the structure of their studies at the Academy and racing into the midst of conflict that is perhaps larger than they realise, as they travel our core cast discover new sides and hidden depths to both each other and themselves, not all of them welcome. Echoes picks up seamlessly on the themes of identity established in Beanstalk, examining the interplay between who you think you are and how others’ opinions and perceptions affect you.
Outside of the structure of their studies at the Academy and racing into the midst of conflict that is perhaps larger than they realise, as they travel our core cast discover new sides and hidden depths to both each other and themselves, not all of them welcome. Echoes picks up seamlessly on the themes of identity established in Beanstalk, examining the interplay between who you think you are and how others’ opinions and perceptions affect you.
January 27, 2024
I really enjoyed it! I read book one, "Beanstalk", many years ago and had just never had the time to go back and finish the series, and was really glad to hook in this year! EJL is one of my favourite fanfic-turned-published authors, and I've always loved the nearly-poetic style of their writing, their character introspections, and the way they make a point to showcase the small things in any story.
March 5, 2017
I love everything. I love so many characters. I feel so much because there is so much for them. George, Bea, Bidi, and Liam can all be added to the list of characters who have my heart. I love Jack, Laney, Grey, and Rupert even more. They are so fleshed out, I want to cry.
August 10, 2018
the way plotlines tied themselves together! jack and grey! "for every village afraid of dying there was a blacksmith with a knife up his sleeve and unvoiced reasons."
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July 6, 2021She can't not do character studies lol
January 7, 2016
“You’re so much more than a hero. Or so much less. They look at you and see this brave boy, with scars on his arms from glorious old battles. They think you’re here to save people, because they’re worth saving. They think you’re here because you’re good. No such thing as a hero, though, is there?”
I almost just want the entirety of my review to be: Holy Shit.
Because that's what I kept thinking through the entire book. I was entertained through Beanstalk.
Echoes of a Giantkiller had me utterly enthralled.
The things I enjoyed most was that there were some pretty big reveals in this book about the characters and their pasts. And Lomax didn't play coy with them. Because there are multiple povs through the books, as soon as something was relevant, if the character you were following knew it, you knew it too.
The other characters didn't.
So it was a different kind of tension from the "is it going to end up this way?!" that you get in a lot of books and instead became more personal. When would these characters you've become so invested in find out XX? How will they react? You are just as tense and on edge as the one that holds the secret and, man, did it make for an amazing read.
There was a lot more plot in this book but it didn't make the characterization suffer for it. Moreover, I really enjoy that it feels like she's taking us on a journey with these characters and that there's not just "one big bad" that they're fighting. Instead, it's the progression of heroes in a world where there is more than one villain (and more than one type of villain). From the monsters and masterminds in Beanstalk to the Seeress in the mountains to the new villain revealed in the end... I cannot wait to see where the third book brings us.
I almost just want the entirety of my review to be: Holy Shit.
Because that's what I kept thinking through the entire book. I was entertained through Beanstalk.
Echoes of a Giantkiller had me utterly enthralled.
The things I enjoyed most was that there were some pretty big reveals in this book about the characters and their pasts. And Lomax didn't play coy with them. Because there are multiple povs through the books, as soon as something was relevant, if the character you were following knew it, you knew it too.
The other characters didn't.
So it was a different kind of tension from the "is it going to end up this way?!" that you get in a lot of books and instead became more personal. When would these characters you've become so invested in find out XX? How will they react? You are just as tense and on edge as the one that holds the secret and, man, did it make for an amazing read.
There was a lot more plot in this book but it didn't make the characterization suffer for it. Moreover, I really enjoy that it feels like she's taking us on a journey with these characters and that there's not just "one big bad" that they're fighting. Instead, it's the progression of heroes in a world where there is more than one villain (and more than one type of villain). From the monsters and masterminds in Beanstalk to the Seeress in the mountains to the new villain revealed in the end... I cannot wait to see where the third book brings us.
March 6, 2016
Full review: http://wp.me/p4cWoC-Je
Focused on characterization, but never shying away form action and espionage, Echoes of a Giantkiller is at its heart a coming-of-age story. The individual discoveries and demons of its hero protagonists tie intimately into their relationships with each other, forcing them to lay personal priorities against the priorities and histories of their companions, and thus reach a new, deeper understanding of themselves and each other. The character development throughout the novel reminded me of a quote, I believe from John Green: "Literature is in the business of helping us to imagine ourselves and others more complexly, of connecting us to the ancient conversation about how to live as a person in a world full of other people." Giantkiller shows that even the people we know best, who we imagine we have an accurate template of expectations for, most likely hold depths we haven't yet imagined. How we react to the reveal of a new facet is vital to our continued growth.
Focused on characterization, but never shying away form action and espionage, Echoes of a Giantkiller is at its heart a coming-of-age story. The individual discoveries and demons of its hero protagonists tie intimately into their relationships with each other, forcing them to lay personal priorities against the priorities and histories of their companions, and thus reach a new, deeper understanding of themselves and each other. The character development throughout the novel reminded me of a quote, I believe from John Green: "Literature is in the business of helping us to imagine ourselves and others more complexly, of connecting us to the ancient conversation about how to live as a person in a world full of other people." Giantkiller shows that even the people we know best, who we imagine we have an accurate template of expectations for, most likely hold depths we haven't yet imagined. How we react to the reveal of a new facet is vital to our continued growth.
September 24, 2017
I was about to extol the virtues of this story and how wonderful and sad and deep and painful and joyful it was, but then Last Words happened and I'm gonna punch someone.
It's such an impressively told tale, the interweaving of characters and the depths they come to have, each has their own stories and secrets. That's pretty much how Lomax writes, to steal a phrase from Sanderson; There's Always Another Secret, and the secrets stick around and create tension and then are revealed and stretch friendships into new shapes. This book takes the friends of the last book and teases mercilessly at their histories waiting for them, and maybe wanting them, to break apart from the reveals.
Oh and gosh, the obits are still such a good device. There's so many quotable snippets from this book, it's very beautifully put together.
It's such an impressively told tale, the interweaving of characters and the depths they come to have, each has their own stories and secrets. That's pretty much how Lomax writes, to steal a phrase from Sanderson; There's Always Another Secret, and the secrets stick around and create tension and then are revealed and stretch friendships into new shapes. This book takes the friends of the last book and teases mercilessly at their histories waiting for them, and maybe wanting them, to break apart from the reveals.
Oh and gosh, the obits are still such a good device. There's so many quotable snippets from this book, it's very beautifully put together.
February 10, 2016
4.5 rounding up. Even better than the first book. I love her characters - I think that's really where she excels. Character building and relationship development. It still has that Drabble-y feel to it in sections and she flashes around in time, but it works for me. Can't wait to read the next book! And a suggestion for the author? I'd love to actually pay for these books, because they are that awesome, and worth buying. but honestly I don't have space for physical copies anymore. Perhaps a way to donate or pay/donate what you want for an e-copy?
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February 4, 2017This middle book of the trilogy fills in more of the backstory of the main characters. The plot and characters both drive the story. The characters develop and overcome obstacles. However, the still have a mystery to solve, and I'm sure, more secrets to be revealed in the third book.
October 6, 2016
Fantastic follow up to Beanstalk, continues the events and development of the characters from the first book and sets up the next book very well. I'm excited to see how and where the story progresses from here.
August 21, 2024
Just cleaning up this years reread. Started 2 days back. I love these books and I love those kids.
Onwards to Dust.
Oh the heartbreaks. Excellent as the first one! Onto the finale, I'll be quite sad to be finished with this story and the world.
Onwards to Dust.
Oh the heartbreaks. Excellent as the first one! Onto the finale, I'll be quite sad to be finished with this story and the world.
July 14, 2016
Just as amazing as the first one - can't wait to see the third!
March 13, 2016
Some things seemed a little anachronistic, but overall a good story.
The third book should be interesting.
The third book should be interesting.
January 30, 2017
Getting a fuller picture of Jack and Grey's backstory as the team grows even closer is awesome.
August 14, 2017
Brilliant! The suspense is built up until you can't figure out which way things will fall. I also love the flips into the past and into their backstories. Moving onto the final book!
Displaying 1 - 22 of 22 reviews