The cyberthrills are stylized, but the focus is on action, and there’s just enough left unresolved to tempt readers onward.
A young video game whiz squares off against monsters and terrorists in a mad genius’ cyberworld to save America.
Ex–football star Rick gained world-class Xbox expertise during months of seclusion following the sudden disappearance of his scientist father and an accident that cost him the use of his legs, so he puts up only minor resistance when federal agents kidnap him and demand that he allow his mind to be wired into a MindWar Realm. The Realm’s creator, Kurodar, is lining up support from the Axis Assembly (“the gathered leaders of every tyranny on earth”) to wage cyberwar on the United States. Rick works to learn how to use spiritual force in the Realm to battle ravening security bots on the way to sabotaging a never-specified demonstration of Kurodar’s powers. Meanwhile, the bad guy himself pursues a certain American computer expert known as Traveler—whose real identity is telegraphed well before a big reveal in the late going. In the end, Rick’s immediate lot has improved, but Kurodar remains at large, and evidence of a traitor sets up the next episode.
The cyberthrills are stylized, but the focus is on action, and there’s just enough left unresolved to tempt readers onward. (Science fiction. 11-13)Pub Date: July 15, 2014
ISBN: 978-1-4016-8892-9
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Thomas Nelson
Review Posted Online: April 8, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2014
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A dramatic tale—or the first part of one, anyway—heavily steeped in tribal lore.
The young Cherokee seer struck by lightning in Abnormal (2014) acquires more extrasensory powers after a near-death experience in this partial sequel.
Rashly opening a long-sealed chamber in a cave he is exploring with his friend Chigger, Billy is bitten and knocked off a cliff by a flock of strange bats. Following a spirit conversation with his long-dead grandmother Awinita (her presence is signaled by whiffs of apple cider and pumpkin pie) about his “unfolding gift” for helping others, he wakes up in a hospital bed with an ability to see into people’s pasts and also to perceive evil. This is fortunate, because opening the cave also released the ancient, life-sucking Horned Serpent known as Uktena from the lake of soporific herbal tea it’s been held in and left Chigger, who had carried away a violet crystal once embedded in the serpent’s tail, possessed. These promising developments may help readers past the unvarnished infodumps and continual references to Cherokee characters and traditional practices that the author shoehorns into the story. With help from a gathering of “medicine people and stomp dance leaders,” Billy seems about to prevail—but then Robinson cuts off abruptly, leaving most of the conflict and all of the resolution for future episodes.
A dramatic tale—or the first part of one, anyway—heavily steeped in tribal lore. (Paranormal suspense. 11-13)Pub Date: April 15, 2015
ISBN: 978-1-939053-08-4
Page Count: 160
Publisher: 7th Generation
Review Posted Online: Feb. 15, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2015
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Gratz has plenty of fun with his alternate history, but returning readers will notice that the dark is definitely rising.
The company of heroes destined to battle the immortal Mangleborn continues to assemble in a middle volume that blurs the line between the good guys and the bad further.
The theft of the titular lantern, which transforms people who see its light into monsters of diverse icky sorts, sends superstrong Archie in pursuit aboard a huge steam-powered robot captained by George Custer. Meanwhile, the vengeful search for those who massacred her home village leads young Seminole warrior Hachi to Marie Laveau’s New Orleans for battles with zombis, loas, and a gigantic Mangleborn serpent. Gratz sets his colorful yarn in an alternate “North Americas” made up of several countries (both colonial and indigenous) and populates the teeming supporting cast with both historical personages, like a windup Jesse James, and an array of tentacled horrors. He pitches his gathering band of Leaguers—grown by the end to five of the appointed seven—into a nonstop round of chases, flights, ambushes, narrow squeaks, and heroic feats. Struggling with his own dark origins as well as a tendency to bouts of irrational, wildly destructive rage worthy of the Incredible Hulk, Archie leads a vividly drawn and diverse ensemble. Helquist’s portraits of intrepid or menacing figures at the chapter heads signal the story’s shifts in focus.
Gratz has plenty of fun with his alternate history, but returning readers will notice that the dark is definitely rising. (map) (Fantasy/steampunk. 11-13)Pub Date: June 9, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-7653-3823-5
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Starscape/Tom Doherty
Review Posted Online: March 24, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2015
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