Exciting aerial action, magnificent winged horses, and a relatable young heroine!

The Sky King is the second book in the middle-grade fantasy adventure series, Skyriders, by author Polly Holyoke, and it is a wonderful follow-up to the debut novel. With exciting aerial action, magnificent winged horses, and a relatable young heroine, this new adventure had me glued to its pages and completely invested in the outcome.

Young Kiesandra “Kie” Torsun and her skysteed partner, N’Rah, have returned to their duties in the mail service after Prekalt’s victory over the Foul Ones. Still, rumors of rogue chimerae attacking isolated villages and fellow couriers prove all too true. As the Nexara, the physical link between humans and skysteeds, Kie is conflicted over her desire to safeguard her people and the danger to the skysteeds, whose involvement would be necessary to defeat the evil beasts. After a misstep in her relationship with N’Rah, she realizes she must convince humans and skysteeds alike that they must work together as equal partners for success. I could feel the love and respect between Kie and N’Rah throughout the story, and her relationship with the quirky N’Poda involved all my emotions.

The action sequences of the skyriders and skysteeds battling the chimerae and vultiren were exciting with edge-of-your-seat suspense. I also enjoyed Kie’s growing awareness of the magic available to her and look forward to this aspect expanding in future books.

The author’s writing style is engaging, and the storyline is suitable for a wide age range of readers, although younger children may be bothered by the monsters and off-page losses of skyriders and skysteeds in battle. This series would make a great read-aloud for the family, classroom, or after-school programming. While this is the second book in the series, new readers can easily pick up on the overall story.

I recommend THE SKY KING to middle-grade and older readers of fantasy and adventure stories. ( )