by George Tyson ‧ RELEASE DATE: Jan. 7, 2013
A clever, historically robust fantasy journey.
In Tyson’s heartfelt fantasy debut, a British leader recruits a scholar of Celtic folk religion to find a man who just might be the second coming of King Arthur.
In 2037, hunger and war have flooded the United Kingdom with desperate African refugees. Neo-Nazis want to overthrow the government, and as part of their plan, they want to rally Britons around a charismatic figure. After a man pulls a sword from a stone at a carnival attraction, he mysteriously vanishes, and U.K. Permanent Secretary Sir Dryw Merrick suspects the fascists are involved. He summons Peter Quince, an American theology professor (and former Marine), to help search for Arthur Redux, hoping that Quince will succeed where his deadly secret agents have failed. During the professor’s investigation, he interviews eyewitnesses to the sword-pull: Ricky, the surly carnival manager; Flora and Dora, elderly twins (with apparently one mind) who speak in riddles; and Thistle, a woman who’s charming, intelligent and gorgeous—except for her oversized left eye. Tyson infuses these and other encounters with wry humor. For example, after Peter barely gets any information out of Flora and Dora, he thinks, “If Alice had met that pair in Wonderland, she would have slashed her wrists.” Rollicking with consistently sharp dialogue, Peter’s travels in myth-steeped Great Britain are also enchantingly informative; Tyson never explores a new landscape without including a sentence or two about the relevant history and architecture. He also nails the country’s legendary mystique: “I’d seen spectacular sunsets before, but I’d never seen one from where the sun steps down from the sky each evening and wades into the ocean.” Indeed, all that keeps the novel from being a perfect fantasy adventure is its truncated climax; the plot’s extended falling action unfortunately diminishes the thrill of the chase.
A clever, historically robust fantasy journey.Pub Date: Jan. 7, 2013
ISBN: 978-0985865733
Page Count: 324
Publisher: The Bedwyr Press
Review Posted Online: April 22, 2013
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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by J.D. Salinger ‧ RELEASE DATE: June 15, 1951
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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by Kristin Hannah ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 1, 2006
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
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