Finnikan of the Rock

Meline Marchetta (author)

Viking, Penguin Group, Australia, 2008: 400pp

ISBN: 9780670072811

Genres: adventure, fantasy

Issues: crime, culture, friendship, identity, leadership, loyalty

Note: extension concepts, vocabulary

CBCA Shortlist, 2009: Book of the Year, Older Readers

Corruption and treason brought dark times to the Kingdom of Lumatere. Innocent blood - both royal and common - is shed in the quest for power.

Those become known as ‘the five days of the unspeakable'. The Forest Dwellers, a minority race in the kingdom, are almost wiped out, blamed for the dark time due to their worship of the dark side of the Goddess. As their matriarch is put to flame, she cries out a blood curse, one so strong that it ‘caused the land to shudder and split the earth; that swallowed those who failed to run from the fury of its jaws'.

Many fled to the Valley of Tranquility, outside the Kingdom Walls, seeking safety. But the curse shut them out forever, leaving an entire population to wander divided, seeking refuge in other kingdoms where they never integrated but longed always to return home.

Finnikin of the Rock people, son of the Captain of the Guard, and his mentor, Sir Topher, King's First Man (prime minister), journey from kingdom to kingdom, making a census of the lost Lumaterans and negotiating for their people's welfare with foreign courts. There seems no other way - although Finnikin has translated a prophecy that appears to hint that a return to Lumatere is possible if one of royal blood remains.

All seems hopeless until Finnikin receives a strange summons - to meet Evanjelin, a young woman who claims that the heir to the throne lives and she can find him. Evanjelin is a complex, arrogant, passionate, manipulative young woman and Finnikin soon finds he has lost what little control he had over his destiny. Resentful of the girl's uncanny powers and knowledge, Finnikin struggles to find his role in this new quest, caught between hope and terror in a journey that promises to reunite him with his father, his childhood friends, and the people he has spent ten years struggling to serve.

In this rich, complex, enthralling tale, Marchetta demonstrates the depth of her writing skills. Complex characters and relationships set against a broad canvas of political and humanitarian issues create a compelling narrative. Told principally from Finnikin's perspective, the novel unfolds as elegantly as a piece of origami - not an unnecessary fold or turn to be found. The language is glorious - slightly formal, full of evocative phrases and containing a distinctive tone that draws the reader deep into the world Marchetta has created.