The Prince Who Fell from the Sky, by John Claude Bemis – book review by Fred Patten.
by Patch O'Furr
Submitted by Fred Patten, Furry’s favorite historian and reviewer.
The Prince Who Fell from the Sky, by John Claude Bemis.
NYC, Random House, May 2012, hardcover $16.99 (259 [+ 1] pages), Kindle $5.98.
In this Young Adult fantasy (recommended for ages 8-12; grades 3-7), humanity is long extinct. Intelligent but feral animals have taken over the Earth. The Forest is a wilderness with a few crumbling ruins of mankind covered in greenery. The wolves rule the Forest, but a tribe of black bears is powerful and non-threatening enough that the wolves do not bother them. The animals are divided into the voras and the viands; predators and prey. The voras all speak a common Vorago language that the viands don’t, although there are exceptions:
“Cassiomae [a bear] reared up in surprise. The rat was speaking in Vorago, the common tongue used by all the vora hunters. How could a rat speak Vorago? None of the viands spoke Vorago.” (p. 7)
They are also divided into the Faithful, those such as the dogs who were the servants of the Skinless Ones, the now-extinct humans, and those who weren’t. The Skinless Ones are called the Old Devils by some of the animals.