A wandering, though cathartic, urban fantasy saga about a jewel thief.
This debut novel sees a woman with a knack for trouble run afoul of a secret enclave of Elves.
Shona McLeod is attending a party at the Zurich villa of Ekbeth na Duibhne. He’s the enigmatic owner of a private bank and cousin to the roguish Lyrian Farrill, who possesses the jade Kadj’dur ring. Shona desperately wants the ring—and can steal it using her miraculous talent for phasing through solid objects—but she opts for some fun first. She seduces Ekbeth and pilfers irreplaceable jade stones from a safe in his quarters, intending to ransom them against the Kadj’dur. The stones, however, are the Annilis jewels, the millennia-old legacy of the As’mirin, a community of elves living in the Valley (the inert crater of a volcano). When Ekbeth catches up with Shona, they discuss the fact that she, too, is an As’mir, an Oyyad (outsider) from the Scottish McLean family. He tells her that the gems must return with him to the hidden city of Kse’Annilis. There, she eventually submits to a trial for her past transgressions by her ghostly ancestors, the Ke’As’mirin. Once in the Valley, Shona witnesses the reunion between the estranged McLeans and na Duibhnes, who have been feuding for 30 years. When Shona abruptly vanishes from the reunion, chaos and paranoia become the backdrop to her continued hunt for the Kadj’dur. In this first installment of an urban fantasy series, Haynes aims to redeem a protagonist who’s been through it all, including heroin addiction and suicidal tendencies. Even the Goddess Ara says, “Life has not been easy for you so far. You’ve survived, but at what price?” The extent of Shona’s tragic past, involving a family in Bhutan, may blindside many readers expecting a story typical of elves and teleportation powers. Yet Shona’s arc from wild child to reborn matriarch meanders, like a memoir, and the main theme remains revenge. Nevertheless, Haynes strives for a light tone early on, as when Shona tells Ekbeth: “I won’t bite, I promise! Or maybe just a little.” But overall, some readers may wish for a tighter focus on fewer characters.
A wandering, though cathartic, urban fantasy saga about a jewel thief.Pub Date: July 22, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-5354-3485-0
Page Count: 532
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: May 8, 2017
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
An author to watch, Buehlman is now two for two in delivering eerie, offbeat novels with admirable literary skill.
Cormac McCarthy's The Road meets Chaucer's Canterbury Tales in this frightful medieval epic about an orphan girl with visionary powers in plague-devastated France.
The year is 1348. The conflict between France and England is nothing compared to the all-out war building between good angels and fallen ones for control of heaven (though a scene in which soldiers are massacred by a rainbow of arrows is pretty horrific). Among mortals, only the girl, Delphine, knows of the cataclysm to come. Angels speak to her, issuing warnings—and a command to run. A pack of thieves is about to carry her off and rape her when she is saved by a disgraced knight, Thomas, with whom she teams on a march across the parched landscape. Survivors desperate for food have made donkey a delicacy and don't mind eating human flesh. The few healthy people left lock themselves in, not wanting to risk contact with strangers, no matter how dire the strangers' needs. To venture out at night is suicidal: Horrific forces swirl about, ravaging living forms. Lethal black clouds, tentacled water creatures and assorted monsters are comfortable in the daylight hours as well. The knight and a third fellow journeyer, a priest, have difficulty believing Delphine's visions are real, but with oblivion lurking in every shadow, they don't have any choice but to trust her. The question becomes, can she trust herself? Buehlman, who drew upon his love of Fitzgerald and Hemingway in his acclaimed Southern horror novel, Those Across the River (2011), slips effortlessly into a different kind of literary sensibility, one that doesn't scrimp on earthy humor and lyrical writing in the face of unspeakable horrors. The power of suggestion is the author's strong suit, along with first-rate storytelling talent.
An author to watch, Buehlman is now two for two in delivering eerie, offbeat novels with admirable literary skill.Pub Date: Oct. 2, 2012
ISBN: 978-1-937007-86-7
Page Count: 432
Publisher: Ace/Berkley
Review Posted Online: Sept. 1, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2012
At Buckkeep in the Six Duchies, young Fitz, the bastard son of Prince Chivalry, is raised as a stablehand by old warrior Burrich. But when Chivalry dies without legitimate issue—murdered, it's rumored—Fitz, at the orders of King Shrewd, is brought into the palace and trained in the knightly and courtly arts. Meanwhile, secretly at night, he receives instruction from another bastard, Chade, in the assassin's craft. Now, King Shrewd's subjects are imperiled by the visits of the Red-Ship Raiders—formidable warriors who pillage the seacoasts and turn their human victims into vicious, destructive zombies. Since rehabilitating the zombies proves impossible, it's Fitz's task to go abroad covertly and kill them as quickly and humanely as possible. Shrewd orders that Fitz be taught the Skill—mental powers of telepathy and coercion possessed by all those of the royal line; his teacher is Galen, a sadistic ally of the popinjay Prince Regal, who hates Fitz all the more for his loyalty to Shrewd's other son, the stalwart soldier Verity. Galen brutalizes Fitz and, unknown to anyone, implants a mental block that prevents Fitz from using the Skill. Later, Shrewd decrees that, to cement an alliance, Verity shall wed the Princess Kettricken, heir to a remote yet rich mountain kingdom. Verity, occupied with Skillfully keeping the Red-Ship Raiders at bay, can't go to collect his bride, so Regal and Fitz are sent. Finally, Fitz must discover the depths of Regal's perfidy, recapture his true Skill, win Kettricken's heart for Verity, and help Verity defeat the Raiders. An intriguing, controlled, and remarkably assured debut, at once satisfyingly self-contained yet leaving plenty of scope for future extensions and embellishments.
Pub Date: April 17, 1995
ISBN: 0-553-37445-1
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Spectra/Bantam
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 1995
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