Keeper of the Lost Cities

Keeper of the Lost Cities is an upper-middle-grade fantasy series by Shannon Messenger that has appeared on the New York Times Best Seller list for a total of ten weeks.

Keeper of the Lost Cities

The logo as used on covers of books in the series
Author	Shannon Messenger
Country	United States
Language	English
Publisher	Simon & Schuster
No. of books	10

Plot summary

The protagonist of the series, Sophie, is a twelve-year-old elf with telepathy who lives in San Diego, California with a human family.

In the first book, Sophie, while on a school field trip, is tracked down by a teenage elf, Fitz, who reveals that she is an elf. He discusses the reality of their world with Sophie and tells her that she has to move to the Lost Cities—a place unknown to humankind where elves, trolls, ogres, goblins, gnomes and dwarves live in harmony. She is forced to leave her human family behind and stay with an elvin couple, Grady and Edaline, who later adopt her. She starts school at a noble elvin academy named Foxfire.

The main conflict in the series is between the Black Swan, a rebel organization, and the Neverseen, a group of criminal extremists. Sophie learns that the Black Swan are her creators, and that her old neighbor from the human world, Mr. Forkle, is the director of the Black Swan's Project Moonlark, in which she was created. Her biological parents are unknown due to catastrophes that could be created if their identities are discovered. The parents could face scorn and be punished for being involved in Project Moonlark due to its secretive and illegal nature. Later in the series, Sophie is desperate to find out who her biological parents are, believing it to be the best solution, otherwise she would be unmatchable, meaning she would be looked down upon if she married someone not on her match list.

Series

Main series

The series currently consists of nine novels and Unlocked, which contains a guide to the series and a 236-page novella.

1. Keeper of the Lost Cities (October 2, 2012)
2. Exile (October 1, 2013)
3. Everblaze (November 4, 2014)
4. Neverseen (November 3, 2015)
5. Lodestar (November 1, 2016)
6. Nightfall (November 7, 2017)
7. Flashback (November 6, 2018)
8. Legacy (November 5, 2019)

   8.5. Unlocked (November 17, 2020)

9. Stellarlune (November 8, 2022)

   9.5. Unraveled (forthcoming, December 3, 2024)

Graphic novel adaptation

A graphic novel adaptation of Book 1 was released on November 7, 2023, and is divided into two halves following the main storyline of the original book. The author is Celina Frenn and the illustrator is Gabriello Chianello.

Reception

The series has a largely positive reception. Kirkus Reviews said that the first book was "wholesome shading to bland, but well-stocked with exotic creatures and locales." Booklist Reviews called it a "exciting start to a promising series."

Film adaptation

On January 11, 2021, it was announced that Ben Affleck would be directing an adaptation of Keeper of the Lost Cities for Walt Disney Pictures.

On April 18th, 2024, it was announced that Warner Bros. had landed the rights to the Keeper of the Lost Cities adaptation, with Emma Watts serving as producer and Messenger serving as executive producer.

Characters

• Sophie Elizabeth Foster: The main protagonist of the series. She is a Telepath, Inflictor, Polyglot, Teleporter, and Enhancer, some of which abilities are not known to her at the beginning of the series. Her genes, sourced from Councillor Oralie, an unknown elf, and alicorn DNA, were tweaked by the Black Swan, giving her unusually powerful abilities. She was raised by humans after her experimentation and brought back to the Lost Cities at the age of twelve to complete her education at Foxfire Academy in addition to being adopted by Grady and Edaline Ruewen. She later begins a relationship with Keefe Sencen.
• Keefe Sencen: Sophie's close friend. He is an Empath, allowing him to detect others' feelings. Unlike other Empaths, he can sense emotions without physical contact. In Unlocked, he also becomes a Polyglot, capable of speaking all languages, and manifests two unnamed abilities. His mother, Gisela, is one of the series' main antagonists. He is known for his mischievous ways, such as "the Great Gulon Incident" which is mentioned, but never explained, multiple times throughout the series. He often jokes and teases but it is later revealed that he just uses it to hide how much his parents have abused him. Throughout the series, he mostly aims to discover his "legacy", a term coined by his mother, Gisela.
• Fitzroy "Fitz" Avery Vacker: Sophie's close friend. He is a highly skilled Telepath and becomes Sophie's Cognate, making them a close telepathic pair. After he and Sophie broke up, their Cognate relationship was damaged. He belongs to a prominent family of Elvin nobility. He is sometimes known for his temper issues, relying on anger when he is not sure how to feel, almost murdering his brother Alvar at one point.
• Dexter "Dex" Alvin Dizznee: Sophie's best friend; also a talented alchemist with Technopathy, the ability to manipulate technology. He was sometimes forced to make devices by the Council, for example, the Ability Restrictor in Everblaze.
• Biana Vacker: Sophie's enemy-turned-friend and Fitz's younger sister. She is a Vanisher, allowing her to turn invisible. She is often found sneaking around and listening in on people's conversations. She is shown to be popular in the series.
• Tam Dai and Linh Hai Song: Sophie's friends, previous students at Exillium, a school for banished and or "unruly" elves. Tam is a Shade, capable of manipulating shadows. Because of his ability, he is rarely trusted by strangers. Linh has the ability of Hydrokinesis, the ability to control water. She is known as "the girl of many floods" due to the fact that she caused many floods while mastering her Hydrokinesis, causing her to be banished from the Lost Cities.
• Wylie Endal: The son of Prentice Endal, a key member of the Black Swan. He is a Flasher, which means he can sense and manipulate the colors of light.
• Mr. Forkle: The leader of the Black Swan and a fatherly parental figure to Sophie.

External links

Official website