Exiles of Forlorn by Sean T. Poindexter
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Reviewed for +Readers' Favorite
When you are the thirdson, your role in the family is to die. Really, the first son is the one who inherits your fathers stuff, and then the second son, well now he gets your mothers lands and stuff if she doesn't have any living brothers, and the fourth son, well he is tucked away in the monastery in case something untold would happen. But the thirdson, they send you out to fight a war, a war that has been going forever, and for no reason except that it keeps everyone busy and employed. Lew is a thirdson, but he is sure there has to be more that this to life. Aboard a ship, the Songwillow, bound for exile, he becomes part of a band. The group includes Antioch, his defender, Uller, the magic student, Blackfoot, the street urchin and part time thief, and Reiwyn, the pirates daughter. The most unlikely band you will every see, but they stuck together, and straight to Forlorn, which everyone said was the end of the world. The Exiles of Forlorn is the story mostly of what happens to this little band of characters once they reach the shores of Forlorn, but there are looks back at how each of them got to be on the boat in the first place. Author Sean T. Poindexter does a wonderful job placing those looks back at pivotal points in the story where they make sense.
Exiles of Forlorn is Young Adult in the Lew and his crew of exiles are all in their late teens, still kids really, and so in some ways the story is their coming of age as they find their place in forlorn and what it means to live there. Are they just there for the time or are they going to stay. The technology and instruments that they rely on throughout the story gives you the feeling of the middle ages, but fantasy. Author Sean T. Poindexter makes sure to throw in something completely unexpected just when you are comfortably lured into thinking its the middle ages. This book has war, and with war comes fighting and death, but its not glorified, or anything, so I recommend it for middle school readers that can handle the topic.
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