Seymour’s artful perfectionism will have readers clamoring for the sequel.
Seymour (Three Dances, 2013) begins a new epic fantasy series in which unlikely heroes must prevent a mythic dragon from destroying the world.
One night in Eldan City, brothers Cole and Litnig each have disturbing dreams. While Lit sees strange figures chained to stone, Cole envisions a black-scaled dragon destroy the world. Then, after Lit has a vision of their friend Ryse in danger, they visit Eldan’s Old Temple, where Ryse is a disciple of the god Yenor. At the temple, the brothers find shocking death and destruction—but miraculously, Ryse lives. As a soulweaver, she taps into the all-permeating River of Souls to heal a small boy; doing so offers her a vision of Sherduan, the black dragon that Cole saw. While leaving the temple, the trio glimpses a shattered dragon statue. “Three sets of golden heart dragons,” says the legend, and “if all of them are broken, a dragon comes from the depths of the void to burn the world.” When Cole meets with his close friend Prince Quay Eldani, he and his brother are enlisted to help save the last two sets of dragon statues from destruction by necromancers. Along the way, Seymour’s cast expands to include a teenage archer, Dilanthia Lonecliff, and a diminutive axe-wielder, Len Heramsun, among others. And while their exploits seemingly echo the many epics crowding this genre, Seymour lets these characters—and their private struggles—command the narrative. He conveys emotional conflict, like whenever Cole thinks of Dilanthia, superbly: “He couldn’t figure out what he wanted her to be. Maybe a best friend. Maybe a sister. Maybe something deeper....” What also distinguishes this fantasy is a clear, unique magic system; e.g., when Ryse heals someone, the soul responds and flows toward her until it forms a “bright, pulsing cloud around her body.” Chapters tend to focus on a character’s personal drama as it roils beneath the larger tale.
Seymour’s artful perfectionism will have readers clamoring for the sequel.Pub Date: Feb. 7, 2014
ISBN: 978-1494388485
Page Count: 444
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: April 2, 2014
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
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
APPRECIATIONS
© Copyright 2024 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
bookshelf
