Series
Genres
Collection
Description
"Jacob Reckless journeys to the Mirrorworld to tell his shapeshifting friend Fox that a fairy curse--a deadly moth in his chest--means he has only one year to live. The journey in Mirrorworld turns into a search against time and against a Goyl treasure hunter for an enchanted crossbow, which is known to strike down any army it faces, and less well known for its healing power when shot by a loved one"--
Publication
Little, Brown Books for Young Readers (2013), Edition: F First Edition, 432 pages
User reviews
LibraryThing member pwaites
I love this book - it is as enchanting and beautiful as the first, if not more so.
Jacob Reckless was cursed by a fairy - and fairy's curses are more powerful than any cure he's been able to find. At last he hears of one possible hope - a crossbow that can kill or cure. He sets out on a race against
One of the great things about this book is that none of the characters are fully good or evil. Nerron proves to be surprisingly sympathetic; he hunts for the bow out of a desire to prove himself rather than for greed or power. The Dark Fairy acts out of love. Fox is occasionally gripped by jealousy. And Jacob's reckless behavior lives up to his name.
But what really amazes me about this book is the world building. The world is darkly enchanting. Old magic teams within it, but the world is being changed by an industrial revolution. Bits and pieces of fairy tales are woven in, and they remain true to their original nature; there is no Disney here. The magic in Fearless is dark, but can be used for good or evil. It also has a price.
I recommend this book to anyone who loves world building, fairy tales, or just a wonderful story.
Jacob Reckless was cursed by a fairy - and fairy's curses are more powerful than any cure he's been able to find. At last he hears of one possible hope - a crossbow that can kill or cure. He sets out on a race against
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death to find it, accompanied all the while by Fox, a loyal friend who could be something more. But the race turns out to not be only against death. Another treasure hunter, a Goyl by the name of Nerron, is also seeking the bow. One of the great things about this book is that none of the characters are fully good or evil. Nerron proves to be surprisingly sympathetic; he hunts for the bow out of a desire to prove himself rather than for greed or power. The Dark Fairy acts out of love. Fox is occasionally gripped by jealousy. And Jacob's reckless behavior lives up to his name.
But what really amazes me about this book is the world building. The world is darkly enchanting. Old magic teams within it, but the world is being changed by an industrial revolution. Bits and pieces of fairy tales are woven in, and they remain true to their original nature; there is no Disney here. The magic in Fearless is dark, but can be used for good or evil. It also has a price.
I recommend this book to anyone who loves world building, fairy tales, or just a wonderful story.
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LibraryThing member LemurKat
As you may have noticed, I was not overly fond of the first book in this series - Reckless - and was thus somewhat reluctant about jumping into book#2. However, it was sitting there, in the library, and i had nothing else to read, so thought it might be worth a go.
And it is a definite
I'm not sure what happened to "Reckless", whether the writing was as choppy and poor as I remembered it or if I was just being extremely critical at the time, but perhaps Latsch has taken more care with the translation of this one and not done it so mechanically, but also managed to capture Funke's delightful and lyrical phrasing. There were some good quotes here, and I'd dig them out for you, if I had time.
Overall, the plot flowed much more smoothly - a routine treasure hunt through the enticing fairy tale world beyond the mirror, but with a few rather disconcerting twists.
Overall, an enjoyable read and I am glad I gave it the chance. Perhaps not as good as Inkheart, but a worthy read all the same.
And it is a definite
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improvement.I'm not sure what happened to "Reckless", whether the writing was as choppy and poor as I remembered it or if I was just being extremely critical at the time, but perhaps Latsch has taken more care with the translation of this one and not done it so mechanically, but also managed to capture Funke's delightful and lyrical phrasing. There were some good quotes here, and I'd dig them out for you, if I had time.
Overall, the plot flowed much more smoothly - a routine treasure hunt through the enticing fairy tale world beyond the mirror, but with a few rather disconcerting twists.
Overall, an enjoyable read and I am glad I gave it the chance. Perhaps not as good as Inkheart, but a worthy read all the same.
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LibraryThing member jmoncton
Jacob Reckless returns to the world behind the mirror, where fairy tales aren't just stories but an alternate reality. In book 1 of this series Reckless, Jacob had saved his brother Will, but at a steep price, receiving a fairy curse that will slowly kill him. Jacob now must team up with the
Cornlia Funke has done it again! Her Mirrorworld is magical, slightly dark, and so amazingly rich that you will wish that there really was another world like this. This is a great series that will will satisfy readers who want a good adventure as well as anyone who wants to totally escape into a world filled with faires, princes, and some not so 'happily ever after' endings. Loved it!
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beautiful shape-shifter Fox to try and find a magic stronger than the Red Fairy's.Cornlia Funke has done it again! Her Mirrorworld is magical, slightly dark, and so amazingly rich that you will wish that there really was another world like this. This is a great series that will will satisfy readers who want a good adventure as well as anyone who wants to totally escape into a world filled with faires, princes, and some not so 'happily ever after' endings. Loved it!
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LibraryThing member melydia
Jacob Reckless is back in the Mirrorworld and desperately searching for a way to save his own life. Like most of Funke's novels, the characters are complex and very human (even when they're not - human, that is). This time around, our beloved characters are racing to find a magical crossbow that
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kills the person it hits as well as all of their underlings, taking out entire armies with a single shot. There are times when it has a bit of an Indiana Jones feel, and others when it's like stepping straight into a fairy tale. I do so enjoy Funke's fantasy tales. They're appropriate for children, but adults can get so much out of them as well. Show Less
LibraryThing member passion4reading
After the events in Reckless, Jacob and Fox travel far and wide in the Mirrorworld to find a cure for the curse of the Dark Fairy that will kill Jacob before long, but to no avail. Then the long-lost tomb of the Witch Slayer is discovered, and it's rumoured that inside it lies the most deadliest
Building on the events in the first volume, it is not absolutely essential to be familiar with the plot of Reckless, but the reader will get a lot more pleasure from Fearless if they understand the characters of the main participants and what motivates them. Whereas some of the plotting and characterisation in the previous volume were a little uneven, here both are flawless, and the hunt for the crossbow reads like a breathless Indiana Jones-style chase through dark fairy tales, where there is still plenty of scope for the characters to develop and mature, while also managing to make statements about courage, loyalty and the fear of mortality. I envy Cornelia Funke her seemingly boundless imagination and the ability to tame it into words, sweeping you up in them and transporting you, like Jacob, to a different world, and allowing you to care so much for her principal characters that I'm certain my heart beat faster in sympathy more than once. Tense, gripping and simply wonderful, the book weaves a spell all of its own and I'm sure that this will become a regular favourite I will turn to like a comfort blanket.
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crossbow ever built. Could this be the answer to Jacob and Fox's prayers? But they're not the only ones trying to find it ...Building on the events in the first volume, it is not absolutely essential to be familiar with the plot of Reckless, but the reader will get a lot more pleasure from Fearless if they understand the characters of the main participants and what motivates them. Whereas some of the plotting and characterisation in the previous volume were a little uneven, here both are flawless, and the hunt for the crossbow reads like a breathless Indiana Jones-style chase through dark fairy tales, where there is still plenty of scope for the characters to develop and mature, while also managing to make statements about courage, loyalty and the fear of mortality. I envy Cornelia Funke her seemingly boundless imagination and the ability to tame it into words, sweeping you up in them and transporting you, like Jacob, to a different world, and allowing you to care so much for her principal characters that I'm certain my heart beat faster in sympathy more than once. Tense, gripping and simply wonderful, the book weaves a spell all of its own and I'm sure that this will become a regular favourite I will turn to like a comfort blanket.
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LibraryThing member CurrerBell
Good, but not comparable to the first installment, Reckless. Part of the problem, I think, is that Mirrorworld just isn't as innovative a concept as the Inkheart universe; so once we get our introduction to Mirrorworld in the first volume, it becomes a bit passe in this second installment. Another
Still, 3½***, and I do want to get on to the concluding volume, The Golden Yarn.
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problem wit Fearless is that it tends toward too many cliffhangers as we pass from one mini-adventure to another.Still, 3½***, and I do want to get on to the concluding volume, The Golden Yarn.
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LibraryThing member richardderus
I RECEIVED A DRC FROM THE PUBLISHER VIA EDELWEISS+. THANK YOU.
My Review: I am convinced that this series is cruelly aimed at obsessive completist readers. The cliffhanger at the end of book one makes this book a MUST-READ NOW and, through the magic of Kindle, I was able to read the books
I am in.
What happens during the course of this book is that Jacob comes to understand something he'd never given much thought to: My love for you creates my responsibility for you creates a web of obligation that is endless...and as addictive as any narcotic. While we who have read the first book know what a price Jacob has paid, in fact what a price he paid after making a sacrifice that even he isn't quite aware of the dimensions of yet, we're probably not expecting the antagonist of this book.
In fact, I guarantee we're unprepared for the existence of the antagonist of this book. And that's probably Author Funke's most clever sleeve-ace yet. It plays well.
There are the accustomed delights of reading this series' world-building fillips. These are numerous, though enumerating them for you isn't really something worth doing in a review. There is a Fandom wiki, of course there is!, and I didn't look but am willing to bet there's fanfic on AO3. The reason is that Author Funke used every conceivable fairy-tale source to draw her world out from and has made it into a near-seamless whole. (Where there are seams that I can perceive, eg Goyls' method of transmission, it felt to me as though they were intentional not born of inattention to source material.)
The problem I had wth this entry is how kinetic, nay frenetic, it is. We go from pillar to post and back again; Fox is with us, Nerron the treasure-hunting half-Goyl whose existence is new to this book is against us; we're never for a moment at rest, able to take stock, pause to reflect. It's exactly what Author Funke intends, and it's a valid narrative technique but in this reader it creates a sense of distance from the characters. I'm so deep in the world that I don't get to experience his progress through his (final?) days.
Until I read this:
"If you catch your own children in the circle...then you can use the years you take from them for yourself. You're just taking back the life you gave them in the first place. The more of it, the better."
That was a gut-punch of a trap set for overeager treasure hunters, wasn't it?! And the sheer violence of the stakes set...if you're not a relative of the curse-setter, you're still going to die in the circle but it won't keep the curse-setter alive...could not be more urgent. Now that Jacob has found this evil place, he thinks he's trapped in the curse.
Fox, his shifter gal-pal, isn't having that. As always, the woman's love saves the man from his stupidity and greed. Though let's be fair to Author Funke, this time Jacob's greed was simply the desire to live that we all suffer from. And since Fox very much wants Jacob still alive, she's hardly just going to watch as he dies from a curse she can stop from progressing...if she's willing to do something that's very, very hard to do and commit murder.
Killing someone/thing in a struggle isn't murder. The intent to kill, the set purpose and the planning of the act...that's murder. Will she murder to save Jacob's life?
You'll have to read the book.
The ending is tremendously exciting.
My Review: I am convinced that this series is cruelly aimed at obsessive completist readers. The cliffhanger at the end of book one makes this book a MUST-READ NOW and, through the magic of Kindle, I was able to read the books
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back-to-back. I warn all who come after me: To sign up for this voyage into Mirrorworld is to commit to the whole cycle.I am in.
What happens during the course of this book is that Jacob comes to understand something he'd never given much thought to: My love for you creates my responsibility for you creates a web of obligation that is endless...and as addictive as any narcotic. While we who have read the first book know what a price Jacob has paid, in fact what a price he paid after making a sacrifice that even he isn't quite aware of the dimensions of yet, we're probably not expecting the antagonist of this book.
In fact, I guarantee we're unprepared for the existence of the antagonist of this book. And that's probably Author Funke's most clever sleeve-ace yet. It plays well.
There are the accustomed delights of reading this series' world-building fillips. These are numerous, though enumerating them for you isn't really something worth doing in a review. There is a Fandom wiki, of course there is!, and I didn't look but am willing to bet there's fanfic on AO3. The reason is that Author Funke used every conceivable fairy-tale source to draw her world out from and has made it into a near-seamless whole. (Where there are seams that I can perceive, eg Goyls' method of transmission, it felt to me as though they were intentional not born of inattention to source material.)
The problem I had wth this entry is how kinetic, nay frenetic, it is. We go from pillar to post and back again; Fox is with us, Nerron the treasure-hunting half-Goyl whose existence is new to this book is against us; we're never for a moment at rest, able to take stock, pause to reflect. It's exactly what Author Funke intends, and it's a valid narrative technique but in this reader it creates a sense of distance from the characters. I'm so deep in the world that I don't get to experience his progress through his (final?) days.
Until I read this:
"If you catch your own children in the circle...then you can use the years you take from them for yourself. You're just taking back the life you gave them in the first place. The more of it, the better."
That was a gut-punch of a trap set for overeager treasure hunters, wasn't it?! And the sheer violence of the stakes set...if you're not a relative of the curse-setter, you're still going to die in the circle but it won't keep the curse-setter alive...could not be more urgent. Now that Jacob has found this evil place, he thinks he's trapped in the curse.
Fox, his shifter gal-pal, isn't having that. As always, the woman's love saves the man from his stupidity and greed. Though let's be fair to Author Funke, this time Jacob's greed was simply the desire to live that we all suffer from. And since Fox very much wants Jacob still alive, she's hardly just going to watch as he dies from a curse she can stop from progressing...if she's willing to do something that's very, very hard to do and commit murder.
Killing someone/thing in a struggle isn't murder. The intent to kill, the set purpose and the planning of the act...that's murder. Will she murder to save Jacob's life?
You'll have to read the book.
The ending is tremendously exciting.
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LibraryThing member Dairyqueen84
Jacob Reckless is one of the best protagonists I've encountered in a long time. You really want him to survive the curse of the Dark Fairy and you are really rooting for he and Fox to finally proclaim their love for each other. I'm looking forward to seeing what happens next to Jacob Reckless and
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Fox in future Mirrorworld adventures. Show Less
Language
Original language
English
Original publication date
2012
Physical description
432 p.; 6 inches
ISBN
0316056103 / 9780316056106