Readers intrigued by moral ambivalence will enjoy this addition to the genre.
A well-conceived blend of fantasy and sci-fi whose numerous characters and complex back story will keep readers on their toes.
Zandugi, or Zan, has been training at the Monastery in the art of fighting using Liff, a kind of life energy that can be channeled into weapons or used for healing. In this age, Liff is guarded by the Zealots, Bishops, and Teachers, all guardians of the Temple, who tell citizens that the Temple’s strict, brutal religious tenets are the only thing keeping them from descending into another Great War. As the story goes, 7,000 years ago, the Five Nations fought over Liff, eventually devastating the landscape and splintering the Nations. Ever since, the Temple has held a Festival of Choosing, in which citizens are chosen to sacrifice themselves so that their Liff may sustain the religious leaders. Most citizens accept this way of life, along with the harsh punishments for rebellion. But not all are cowed. Like Zan, Rem, an orphan in the city of Grindor, sees through the Temple’s cruelty. But when his excursion outside the orphanage with friends ends in disaster, Rem finds that his taste for the power of Liff is a dangerous addiction. Rebels such as Zan and Rem must learn to harness the power of Liff if they are to save a tyrannized nation from itself. Author Al-Attar constructs a complicated world populated (perhaps overpopulated) with the kinds of brave souls and evil oppressors that readers of fantasy have come to expect, but the narrative tweaks those tropes by introducing ambiguity on both sides. Rem—one of the good guys—battles his dependency: “The voice hissed and groaned in hunger. Find me more Liff! Why have you stopped the harvest?...I can’t! Rem yelled back inside his head, trying to keep his composure so people would not get suspicious.” While readers may need a chart to keep the many characters straight, the driving conceit is strong enough to keep the narrative afloat.
Readers intrigued by moral ambivalence will enjoy this addition to the genre.Pub Date: July 4, 2015
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: 527
Publisher: Lulu
Review Posted Online: Nov. 12, 2015
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
The emotions run high, the conversations run deep, and the relationships ebb and flow with grace.
When tragedy strikes, a mother and daughter forge a new life.
Morgan felt obligated to marry her high school sweetheart, Chris, when she got pregnant with their daughter, Clara. But she secretly got along much better with Chris’ thoughtful best friend, Jonah, who was dating her sister, Jenny. Now her life as a stay-at-home parent has left her feeling empty but not ungrateful for what she has. Jonah and Jenny eventually broke up, but years later they had a one-night stand and Jenny got pregnant with their son, Elijah. Now Jonah is back in town, engaged to Jenny, and working at the local high school as Clara’s teacher. Clara dreams of being an actress and has a crush on Miller, who plans to go to film school, but her father doesn't approve. It doesn’t help that Miller already has a jealous girlfriend who stalks him via text from college. But Clara and Morgan’s home life changes radically when Chris and Jenny are killed in an accident, revealing long-buried secrets and forcing Morgan to reevaluate the life she chose when early motherhood forced her hand. Feeling betrayed by the adults in her life, Clara marches forward, acting both responsible and rebellious as she navigates her teenage years without her father and her aunt, while Jonah and Morgan's relationship evolves in the wake of the accident. Front-loaded with drama, the story leaves plenty of room for the mother and daughter to unpack their feelings and decide what’s next.
The emotions run high, the conversations run deep, and the relationships ebb and flow with grace.Pub Date: Dec. 10, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-5420-1642-1
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Montlake Romance
Review Posted Online: Oct. 13, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2019
BOOK TO SCREEN
BOOK TO SCREEN
A tasty, if not always tasteful, tale of supernatural mayhem that fans of King and Crichton alike will enjoy.
Are we not men? We are—well, ask Bigfoot, as Brooks does in this delightful yarn, following on his bestseller World War Z(2006).
A zombie apocalypse is one thing. A volcanic eruption is quite another, for, as the journalist who does a framing voice-over narration for Brooks’ latest puts it, when Mount Rainier popped its cork, “it was the psychological aspect, the hyperbole-fueled hysteria that had ended up killing the most people.” Maybe, but the sasquatches whom the volcano displaced contributed to the statistics, too, if only out of self-defense. Brooks places the epicenter of the Bigfoot war in a high-tech hideaway populated by the kind of people you might find in a Jurassic Park franchise: the schmo who doesn’t know how to do much of anything but tries anyway, the well-intentioned bleeding heart, the know-it-all intellectual who turns out to know the wrong things, the immigrant with a tough backstory and an instinct for survival. Indeed, the novel does double duty as a survival manual, packed full of good advice—for instance, try not to get wounded, for “injury turns you from a giver to a taker. Taking up our resources, our time to care for you.” Brooks presents a case for making room for Bigfoot in the world while peppering his narrative with timely social criticism about bad behavior on the human side of the conflict: The explosion of Rainier might have been better forecast had the president not slashed the budget of the U.S. Geological Survey, leading to “immediate suspension of the National Volcano Early Warning System,” and there’s always someone around looking to monetize the natural disaster and the sasquatch-y onslaught that follows. Brooks is a pro at building suspense even if it plays out in some rather spectacularly yucky episodes, one involving a short spear that takes its name from “the sucking sound of pulling it out of the dead man’s heart and lungs.” Grossness aside, it puts you right there on the scene.
A tasty, if not always tasteful, tale of supernatural mayhem that fans of King and Crichton alike will enjoy.Pub Date: June 16, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-9848-2678-7
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Del Rey/Ballantine
Review Posted Online: Feb. 9, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2020
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK TO SCREEN
© Copyright 2025 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.
