Act of Will

As 18-year-old orphaned actor Will Hawthorne explains early on in this clever page-turner, “I don’t want you thinking you’re going to get a tale about some blue-eyed tyke with a heart of gold in a world where good triumphs over evil. You’re not, I’m not, and in my experience it never does.” Charged as a rebel after escaping the authorities in a world not unlike Elizabethan England, obnoxious, charming Will joins a small mercenary group and proves himself the least honorable of them all. When the group comes under attack from crimson-armored raiders, Will reluctantly fails to betray the companions he is even more reluctantly growing to like. In small, swift “scenes,” Hartley (On the Fifth Day ) deftly proves that people you shouldn’t trust at your back can be the best ones to have at your side. (Mar.)