A tale that delivers an eclectic mix of courtly affairs.
A novel of royal intrigue centers on an eccentric queen in the time of young King Arthur.
Hall (A Man Called Plenty Horses, 2018) presents a visitor named Darien who arrives at King Arthur’s court. Darien has quite a story to tell and it begins with a king named Ballizar. Although readers are informed that Ballizar will eventually be remembered as “the Benevolent,” the beginning of his rule was anything but. Ballizar, in his days as the “Bachelor King,” had a penchant for trying and raping women in a bizarre, brutal ritual called First Night. In the second year of this practice, a beautiful woman named Syrenya came to the king’s court. Syrenya was able to please the monarch sexually (and any other takers, male or female) and soon thereafter was crowned queen. The royal, though fair in her dealings, refused to wear clothes and so became the Naked Queen of the book’s title. Naked though she was, Syrenya was hardly a flouncy pushover. She doled out advice and even requested an exorcism for her husband. She eventually adopted the then-10-year-old Darien and taught him about the world. But not all were happy with Syrenya’s rule. A rebellion brewed and the future of the kingdom was hardly certain. The author’s whole story sets an odd tone. At first, it seems Syrenya’s rule will be an erotic one, seeing as how she pleased the king when she “brought his tormented stiffness a little more into her mouth.” Yet such bawdy scenes are short-lived. Later portions include the details of an attack on a castle and even a song from a representative of the Vatican. Such diverse fare can be disorienting; readers can never be sure where it will all lead. And some dialogue becomes tedious, as when Syrenya gives a lengthy speech as to why she decides to be naked. This includes the odd information that in her place of origin “we have never taken up the habit of clothing ourselves.” Nevertheless, this serpentine tale of a mad king and a (literally) naked queen offers a host of tantalizing possibilities and should certainly hold readers’ interest. Even King Arthur, as he takes in Darien’s story, is nothing short of surprised.
A tale that delivers an eclectic mix of courtly affairs.Pub Date: Aug. 16, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-984545-50-3
Page Count: 215
Publisher: XlibrisUS
Review Posted Online: April 23, 2019
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A breezy and fun contemporary fantasy.
A tightly wound caseworker is pushed out of his comfort zone when he’s sent to observe a remote orphanage for magical children.
Linus Baker loves rules, which makes him perfectly suited for his job as a midlevel bureaucrat working for the Department in Charge of Magical Youth, where he investigates orphanages for children who can do things like make objects float, who have tails or feathers, and even those who are young witches. Linus clings to the notion that his job is about saving children from cruel or dangerous homes, but really he’s a cog in a government machine that treats magical children as second-class citizens. When Extremely Upper Management sends for Linus, he learns that his next assignment is a mission to an island orphanage for especially dangerous kids. He is to stay on the island for a month and write reports for Extremely Upper Management, which warns him to be especially meticulous in his observations. When he reaches the island, he meets extraordinary kids like Talia the gnome, Theodore the wyvern, and Chauncey, an amorphous blob whose parentage is unknown. The proprietor of the orphanage is a strange but charming man named Arthur, who makes it clear to Linus that he will do anything in his power to give his charges a loving home on the island. As Linus spends more time with Arthur and the kids, he starts to question a world that would shun them for being different, and he even develops romantic feelings for Arthur. Lambda Literary Award–winning author Klune (The Art of Breathing, 2019, etc.) has a knack for creating endearing characters, and readers will grow to love Arthur and the orphans alongside Linus. Linus himself is a lovable protagonist despite his prickliness, and Klune aptly handles his evolving feelings and morals. The prose is a touch wooden in places, but fans of quirky fantasy will eat it up.
A breezy and fun contemporary fantasy.Pub Date: March 17, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-250-21728-8
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Tor
Review Posted Online: Nov. 10, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2019
PERSPECTIVES
Suspenseful, frightening, and sometimes poignant—provided the reader has a generously willing suspension of disbelief.
A man walks out of a bar and his life becomes a kaleidoscope of altered states in this science-fiction thriller.
Crouch opens on a family in a warm, resonant domestic moment with three well-developed characters. At home in Chicago’s Logan Square, Jason Dessen dices an onion while his wife, Daniela, sips wine and chats on the phone. Their son, Charlie, an appealing 15-year-old, sketches on a pad. Still, an undertone of regret hovers over the couple, a preoccupation with roads not taken, a theme the book will literally explore, in multifarious ways. To start, both Jason and Daniela abandoned careers that might have soared, Jason as a physicist, Daniela as an artist. When Charlie was born, he suffered a major illness. Jason was forced to abandon promising research to teach undergraduates at a small college. Daniela turned from having gallery shows to teaching private art lessons to middle school students. On this bracing October evening, Jason visits a local bar to pay homage to Ryan Holder, a former college roommate who just received a major award for his work in neuroscience, an honor that rankles Jason, who, Ryan says, gave up on his career. Smarting from the comment, Jason suffers “a sucker punch” as he heads home that leaves him “standing on the precipice.” From behind Jason, a man with a “ghost white” face, “red, pursed lips," and "horrifying eyes” points a gun at Jason and forces him to drive an SUV, following preset navigational directions. At their destination, the abductor forces Jason to strip naked, beats him, then leads him into a vast, abandoned power plant. Here, Jason meets men and women who insist they want to help him. Attempting to escape, Jason opens a door that leads him into a series of dark, strange, yet eerily familiar encounters that sometimes strain credibility, especially in the tale's final moments.
Suspenseful, frightening, and sometimes poignant—provided the reader has a generously willing suspension of disbelief.Pub Date: July 26, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-101-90422-0
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: May 3, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2016
PROFILES
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