The Timekeeper's Moon (MG)

The Timekeeper's Moon by Joni Sensel. 2010 (March 2010). Bloomsbury USA. 352 pages.

The moon refused to hush or come down, so Ariel Farwalker was forced to climb up.

The Timekeeper's Moon is sequel to Farwalker's Quest, a book I just loved last year. Ariel and her friends have found the Vault and answered a few of the questions, but the adventure, the quest, is far from over! More adventures await this Farwalker. What kind of dangerous adventure will her feet lead her on this time around?

Ariel is a Farwalker. That's her "calling" if you will. Her gift, her power, (everyone has one) is to follow where her feet lead her. Lately, Ariel has been haunted by the moon, she hears it calling for her, taunting her, daring her almost. Her dreams have been upsetting as well. She feels this urgency to go, and quickly. But this time Zeke won't be along on the journey. She'll be meeting new people along the way: an older-but-not-particularly wiser, girl, Sienna, and a mute-but-oh-so-cute young boy, Nace. (And Scarl, of course, will be by her side to protect and encourage her as well.)

I'm not quite sure how to classify The Timekeeper's Moon. It's a mostly technological-free future-world that Sensel has created. But it is the future. There are glimpses of a world-gone-wrong, a world-gone-mad, traces of what led to the downfall of society. The people we meet, the villages we encounter, are proof that life continues, that you can emerge from the darkest 'dark ages' if you will. So that speaks of science fiction, in a way. Future worlds. The building and rebuilding of societies. As far as the 'gifts' people have, well, that's a bit of fantasy, very light fantasy though. No matter what category (and why does it have to be in a category to begin with?) you put this one in, it is good and satisfying just like the first. Joni Sensel knows how to tell a good story.

© Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews