A fun fairy-tale fantasy that should please fans of William Goldman’s The Princess Bride.
Manly Hero, heir to a dynasty of mighty warriors, reluctantly embarks on an adventure/quest in Rood’s debut fantasy novel.
Rood (the pen name of writing couple Petra Hernandez and Adam Lombard) turns in a solid, enjoyable start to a comical fantasy series set in a magical realm. Thrakis was once a place of epic deeds, where noble families with imperious surnames such as Champion and Hero fought wickedness and monsters. But the now-peaceful Thrakis has become a dull place of shallow social climbing and wedding announcements ever since legendary Mortimer Hero slew the last dragon. Now Mortimer is a drooling, elderly invalid, and Manly Hero, his undersized, 30-year-old grandson, is contemplating a low-paid career as a butterfly curator in the national museum. One day, Mortimer suddenly regains his senses, springs from his wheelchair and guides Manly to the disused Adventurers Guild to prepare for an actual, genuine, perilous quest. It seems that a fire-breathing dragon has reappeared in the north, and Manly’s secret crush, the princesslike Amelia Champion, has been abducted. Manly heads out on a quest, competing with two other teams of aspiring rescuers/dragon slayers, to confront the menace. His two best friends accompany him: newly vegetarian, wannabe-wizard Cronimus Crudge and lusty pirate wench Ruby. Rood nicely imagines this fantasy world, and the story’s banter and wordplay are consistently witty. However, the book threatens to bog down in conversation from time to time; the fact that high-born Cronimus can’t bring himself to confess his love for Ruby, for example, is a major topic of conversation. Manly is also a rather pallid protagonist; until the finale, he does a lot more reacting than acting. The denouement invokes a deus ex machina that’s a bit too similar to the loyal house-elves of the Harry Potter mythos for comfort, and it ensures the survival of all the characters for the inevitable sequel. That said, the tale contains enough twists and verve to whet genre fans’ appetites for its next installment.
A fun fairy-tale fantasy that should please fans of William Goldman’s The Princess Bride.Pub Date: Dec. 19, 2011
ISBN: 978-0983944225
Page Count: 504
Publisher: White Whale Publishing, LLC
Review Posted Online: Jan. 25, 2015
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Wacky plot keeps the pages turning and enduring schmaltzy romantic sequences.
Sisters work together to solve a child-abandonment case.
Ellie and Julia Cates have never been close. Julia is shy and brainy; Ellie gets by on charm and looks. Their differences must be tossed aside when a traumatized young girl wanders in from the forest into their hometown in Washington. The sisters’ professional skills are put to the test. Julia is a world-renowned child psychologist who has lost her edge. She is reeling from a case that went publicly sour. Though she was cleared of all wrongdoing, Julia’s name was tarnished, forcing her to shutter her Beverly Hills practice. Ellie Barton is the local police chief in Rain Valley, who’s never faced a tougher case. This is her chance to prove she is more than just a fading homecoming queen, but a scarcity of clues and a reluctant victim make locating the girl’s parents nearly impossible. Ellie places an SOS call to her sister; she needs an expert to rehabilitate this wild-child who has been living outside of civilization for years. Confronted with her professional demons, Julia once again has the opportunity to display her talents and salvage her reputation. Hannah (The Things We Do for Love, 2004, etc.) is at her best when writing from the girl’s perspective. The feral wolf-child keeps the reader interested long after the other, transparent characters have grown tiresome. Hannah’s torturously over-written romance passages are stale, but there are surprises in store as the sisters set about unearthing Alice’s past and creating a home for her.
Wacky plot keeps the pages turning and enduring schmaltzy romantic sequences.Pub Date: March 1, 2006
ISBN: 0-345-46752-3
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2005
A strict report, worthy of sympathy.
A violent surfacing of adolescence (which has little in common with Tarkington's earlier, broadly comic, Seventeen) has a compulsive impact.
"Nobody big except me" is the dream world of Holden Caulfield and his first person story is down to the basic, drab English of the pre-collegiate. For Holden is now being bounced from fancy prep, and, after a vicious evening with hall- and roommates, heads for New York to try to keep his latest failure from his parents. He tries to have a wild evening (all he does is pay the check), is terrorized by the hotel elevator man and his on-call whore, has a date with a girl he likes—and hates, sees his 10 year old sister, Phoebe. He also visits a sympathetic English teacher after trying on a drunken session, and when he keeps his date with Phoebe, who turns up with her suitcase to join him on his flight, he heads home to a hospital siege. This is tender and true, and impossible, in its picture of the old hells of young boys, the lonesomeness and tentative attempts to be mature and secure, the awful block between youth and being grown-up, the fright and sickness that humans and their behavior cause the challenging, the dramatization of the big bang. It is a sorry little worm's view of the off-beat of adult pressure, of contemporary strictures and conformity, of sentiment….
A strict report, worthy of sympathy.Pub Date: June 15, 1951
ISBN: 0316769177
Page Count: -
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: Nov. 2, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 1951
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