The Stravaganti Are Coming!

    There has been a lot of great reviews for the stravaganza series by British author, Mary Hoffman; and this is for good reason. With five exhilarating books so far in the series, Hoffman has done a wondrous job at capturing the adventure, and danger, of renaissance Italy, and its equivalent, Talia. I have already made my way through the series, as you may have read about in my earlier blogs, but the series is not over yet.

                Yes, as you may have realized, the fifth book is not the last book. Mary Hoffman has announced a sixth, City of Swords, book coming out in 2012. The stravaganti has been told to be Laura, who is Isabel and Ayesha’s friend. She appears in I City of Ships briefly as being a quiet and fragile girl. She was told to be feeling neglected by her friends always hanging out with Sky, nick and the other stravaganti in London, and was often left alone.

                The title of the book seems to suggest that the book takes place in Fortezza, the city of swords. It is known that Fortezza is a city under the control of the di Chimici, specifically old Jacopo di Chimici and his widowed daughter, Lucia. It is also suggested in the earlier books that Guido Parola, reformed assassin and protector of Silvia Rossi, is going to university there, so we may see him. It worries me that we may not see Luciano, since he cannot step foot on di Chimici territory, but I’m sure he will be in the book. Maybe we will see him finally marry Arianna, whose engagement has been dragged out for quite some time.

                I will be watching for the book next year, and will blog on it surely when it does come out. In the meantime, if you haven’t paid attention to the books, or haven’t gotten the information, here is a list of the cities in Talia, their title, and the Italian equivalent city. If you haven’t read the series yet, do so, because you won’t be disappointed.

Bellezza	City of Masks	Venice
Montemurato	City of Towers	Monteriggioni
Padavia	City of Secrets	Padua
Volana	City of Music	Ferrara
Bellona	City of Dreams	Bologna
Fortezza	City of Swords	Lucca
Classe	City of Ships	Ravenna/Classe
Giglia	City of Flowers	Florence
Moresco	City of Mermaids	Pisa
Remora	City of Stars	Siena
Romula	City of Dragons	Rome
Cittanuova	City of Fire	Naples

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