A fresh twist on an old sea myth, complete with magic, intrigue, and plenty of old-school adventures.
A novel offers a historical reimagining of ancient tribes, the story of Atlantis, and the man who would become known as Poseidon, Bridler of the Sea.
Donnogen has had many names. His Amma dubbed him Little Leopard. The band of raiders he took up with after the Sea People drove away the mammoths that his tribe relied upon for survival called him Stag. The witch he paid to learn his true name referred to him simply as “Thief.” Fleeing from this revelation, Donnogen leads his group across the sea on a desperate quest to find a way to return the mammoths to their hunting grounds. He seeks a bountiful “otherworld.” A friendly stranger tells Donnogen: “The land is rich in everything a man needs. Fresh mountain springs. Green forests with delicious fruits and every kind of animal to hunt….And there’s hills rich in gold and precious gems.” Donnogen’s journey to a strange kingdom will bring him loss and force him to compromise his honor, but it will also deliver opportunity and the possibility of love. Cleito is playing her own game of power and deception at the court of her half brother King Xaneheth. Donnogen, or Poseidon as she names him, presents her with an opportunity to advance her own plans, although danger lurks as well, including involving her own heart. Peters (Banished Sons of Poseidon, 2015, etc.) brings imagination and touches of the fantastic to this tale. The inclusion of the mythic gives what might otherwise be a dry, alternate-history narrative a nice burst of the unexpected. Bits of the Atlantis legend mix with stranger elements, such as crystal skulls, barbarian gods, and exploits worthy of Greek myth. The characters are larger than life as well. Poseidon is a mighty barbarian leader, and Cleito’s a commendably strong woman with a ruthless streak. Alternating between Poseidon’s and Cleito’s points of view also gives the story a wonderful counterpoint while illuminating two very separate cultures. Unfortunately, the distinctness of the cultures does not always come through in the characters’ dialogue. But the clash of different ways of living definitely reverberates and only adds to the drama.
A fresh twist on an old sea myth, complete with magic, intrigue, and plenty of old-school adventures.Pub Date: Aug. 29, 2016
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: 251
Publisher: EDGE-Lite
Review Posted Online: Aug. 26, 2016
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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
Amateurish, with a twist savvy readers will see coming from a mile away.
A woman accused of shooting her husband six times in the face refuses to speak.
"Alicia Berenson was thirty-three years old when she killed her husband. They had been married for seven years. They were both artists—Alicia was a painter, and Gabriel was a well-known fashion photographer." Michaelides' debut is narrated in the voice of psychotherapist Theo Faber, who applies for a job at the institution where Alicia is incarcerated because he's fascinated with her case and believes he will be able to get her to talk. The narration of the increasingly unrealistic events that follow is interwoven with excerpts from Alicia's diary. Ah, yes, the old interwoven diary trick. When you read Alicia's diary you'll conclude the woman could well have been a novelist instead of a painter because it contains page after page of detailed dialogue, scenes, and conversations quite unlike those in any journal you've ever seen. " 'What's the matter?' 'I can't talk about it on the phone, I need to see you.' 'It's just—I'm not sure I can make it up to Cambridge at the minute.' 'I'll come to you. This afternoon. Okay?' Something in Paul's voice made me agree without thinking about it. He sounded desperate. 'Okay. Are you sure you can't tell me about it now?' 'I'll see you later.' Paul hung up." Wouldn't all this appear in a diary as "Paul wouldn't tell me what was wrong"? An even more improbable entry is the one that pins the tail on the killer. While much of the book is clumsy, contrived, and silly, it is while reading passages of the diary that one may actually find oneself laughing out loud.
Amateurish, with a twist savvy readers will see coming from a mile away.Pub Date: Feb. 5, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-250-30169-7
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Celadon Books
Review Posted Online: Nov. 3, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2018
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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