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
This brilliant bit of nihilism succeeds where so many self-described transgressive novels do not: It's dangerous because...
Brutal and relentless debut fiction takes anarcho-S&M chic to a whole new level—in a creepy, dystopic, confrontational novel that's also cynically smart and sharply written.
Palahniuk's insomniac narrator, a drone who works as a product recall coordinator, spends his free time crashing support groups for the dying. But his after-hours life changes for the weirder when he hooks up with Tyler Durden, a waiter and projectionist with plans to screw up the world—he's a "guerilla terrorist of the service industry." "Project Mayhem" seems taken from a page in The Anarchist Cookbook and starts small: Durden splices subliminal scenes of porno into family films and he spits into customers' soup. Things take off, though, when he begins the fight club—a gruesome late-night sport in which men beat each other up as partial initiation into Durden's bigger scheme: a supersecret strike group to carry out his wilder ideas. Durden finances his scheme with a soap-making business that secretly steals its main ingredient—the fat sucked from liposuction. Durden's cultlike groups spread like wildfire, his followers recognizable by their open wounds and scars. Seeking oblivion and self-destruction, the leader preaches anarchist fundamentalism: "Losing all hope was freedom," and "Everything is falling apart"—all of which is just his desperate attempt to get God's attention. As the narrator begins to reject Durden's revolution, he starts to realize that the legendary lunatic is just himself, or the part of himself that takes over when he falls asleep. Though he lands in heaven, which closely resembles a psycho ward, the narrator/Durden lives on in his flourishing clubs.
This brilliant bit of nihilism succeeds where so many self-described transgressive novels do not: It's dangerous because it's so compelling.Pub Date: Aug. 1, 1996
ISBN: 0-393-03976-5
Page Count: 192
Publisher: Norton
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 1996
BOOK TO SCREEN
A promising page-turner from a poised newcomer who’s well worth keeping tabs on.
This doorstopper epic fantasy and trilogy opener was originally self-published in 2014.
The details that give this ingeniously plotted yarn its backbone emerge gradually—and are not always entirely clear. Twenty years ago, a war swept away and annihilated the tyrannical Augurs when their formidable magic inexplicably faltered. Their servants, the Gifted, whose lesser magic derives from Essence (Islington has an irritating habit of capitalizing things), were forcibly constrained to obey the Four Tenets, meaning they can no longer use their magic to cause harm even in self-defense. At a school-cum-sanctuary-cum-prison for the Gifted, three 16-year-old friends, Davian, Wirr, and Asha, face their final tests. Though an excellent student, Davian cannot use Essence and faces a cruel exile. He decides to abscond. Wirr believes Davian’s an Augur whose higher-order magic blocks his ability to channel Essence, and he insists on joining him. Ilseth Tenvar, a seemingly sympathetic Elder, gives Davian a mysterious magic box to guide his progress. The next morning Asha wakes to a nightmare of her own. On the road Davian encounters the strange, scarred Gifted Taeris Sarr, who three years ago saved his life (Davian doesn’t remember the incident) and supposedly was executed for his pains. In the far north an ancient evil stirs, while in a related development, Caeden wakes in a forest to find himself covered in blood and with no memory of anything. So, in time-honored fashion, nobody is what they seem to be, everybody has a secret agenda, and the key players all lack pivotal memories. And while there’s nothing much new here, Islington’s natural storytelling ability provides incessant plot twists and maintains a relentless pace. The characters have well-rounded personalities and don’t make decisions or errors merely to advance the plot, even if they all sound and act the same youngish age.
A promising page-turner from a poised newcomer who’s well worth keeping tabs on.Pub Date: Nov. 8, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-316-27409-8
Page Count: 704
Publisher: Orbit
Review Posted Online: Oct. 4, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2016
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