A noble effort that strains for effortless poetry.
In Luther’s debut mystical fantasy, a godlike wizard returns to the world he created and abandoned to impart wisdom on the misbehaving creatures he brought to life.
When Aldwyn returns to his world of Shiniva billions of years after he left, he discovers that, in his absence, the animals he brought to life have gone to war numerous times, tearing apart what was once a peaceful paradise. Rather than seeking a harsh punishment, however, he reaches into his magic bag full of countless stories he’s collected on his travels, and he decrees that, for education, the animals will have to listen to every one of them. The first story he pulls out is the tale of a strange traveling loner named Zaven, who arrives at the small town of Cedar Willow, where he’s met by suspicion. Soon afterward, an older man, Jeb, who owns an antique shop, offers Zaven shelter if he’ll take Jeb’s nephew Ivan on a short journey to retrieve a mysterious chest. After Zaven and Ivan locate and dig it up, an errant family of raccoons opens the chest while the two sleep. Out of the box comes an enchanted claw, which has the power to grant wishes, and the dark fairy collection proceeds from there. Luther crafts an evocative first novel with a tantalizing air of ancient mystery. To the story’s credit, it often reads as if it could have been passed down via the oral tradition from a long-distant society. Unfortunately, this also creates a distancing effect between the reader and the characters, who feel more like archetypal ciphers than flesh-and-blood people. Further, while Luther’s prose sometimes successfully conjures his intended atmosphere, it often lapses into overly forced metaphor and faux-poetic syntax: “Lew released the helmet and the helmet rolled. Neck, broken. Face, dead”; “The elderly husband fell like the eye of a flayed fish.”
A noble effort that strains for effortless poetry.Pub Date: April 10, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-692-27531-3
Page Count: 162
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: Sept. 11, 2015
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Briskly written soap with down-to-earth types, mostly without the lachrymose contrivances of Hannah’s previous titles...
Sisters in and out of love.
Meghann Dontess is a high-powered matrimonial lawyer in Seattle who prefers sex with strangers to emotional intimacy: a strategy bound to backfire sooner or later, warns her tough-talking shrink. It’s advice Meghann decides to ignore, along with the memories of her difficult childhood, neglectful mother, and younger sister. Though she managed to reunite Claire with Sam Cavenaugh (her father but not Meghann’s) when her mother abandoned both girls long ago, Meghann still feels guilty that her sister’s life doesn’t measure up, at least on her terms. Never married, Claire ekes out a living running a country campground with her dad and is raising her six-year-old daughter on her own. When she falls in love for the first time with an up-and-coming country musician, Meghann is appalled: Bobby Austin is a three-time loser at marriage—how on earth can Claire be so blind? Bobby’s blunt explanation doesn’t exactly satisfy the concerned big sister, who busies herself planning Claire’s dream wedding anyway. And, to relieve the stress, she beds various guys she picks up in bars, including Dr. Joe Wyatt, a neurosurgeon turned homeless drifter after the demise of his beloved wife Diane (whom he euthanized). When Claire’s awful headache turns out to be a kind of brain tumor known among neurologists as a “terminator,” Joe rallies. Turns out that Claire had befriended his wife on her deathbed, and now in turn he must try to save her. Is it too late? Will Meghann find true love at last?
Briskly written soap with down-to-earth types, mostly without the lachrymose contrivances of Hannah’s previous titles (Distant Shores, 2002, etc.). Kudos for skipping the snifflefest this time around.Pub Date: May 1, 2003
ISBN: 0-345-45073-6
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2003
A first novel, this is also a first person account of Scout's (Jean Louise) recall of the years that led to the ending of a mystery, the breaking of her brother Jem's elbow, the death of her father's enemy — and the close of childhood years. A widower, Atticus raises his children with legal dispassion and paternal intelligence, and is ably abetted by Calpurnia, the colored cook, while the Alabama town of Maycomb, in the 1930's, remains aloof to their divergence from its tribal patterns. Scout and Jem, with their summer-time companion, Dill, find their paths free from interference — but not from dangers; their curiosity about the imprisoned Boo, whose miserable past is incorporated in their play, results in a tentative friendliness; their fears of Atticus' lack of distinction is dissipated when he shoots a mad dog; his defense of a Negro accused of raping a white girl, Mayella Ewell, is followed with avid interest and turns the rabble whites against him. Scout is the means of averting an attack on Atticus but when he loses the case it is Boo who saves Jem and Scout by killing Mayella's father when he attempts to murder them. The shadows of a beginning for black-white understanding, the persistent fight that Scout carries on against school, Jem's emergence into adulthood, Calpurnia's quiet power, and all the incidents touching on the children's "growing outward" have an attractive starchiness that keeps this southern picture pert and provocative. There is much advance interest in this book; it has been selected by the Literary Guild and Reader's Digest; it should win many friends.
Pub Date: July 11, 1960
ISBN: 0060935464
Page Count: 323
Publisher: Lippincott
Review Posted Online: Oct. 7, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 1960
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BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
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