A novel follows a priest of the goddess Imn-ashu as she fulfills her duty as a Seeker and wields her faith against demons descending on the world.
Jaena travels the countryside searching for children who have inherited taylen, the ability to learn magic. The priest’s senses lead her to the village of Bless-us-goddess, where she quickly finds Wiel, a boy who she believes is a taylenor. Wiel’s parents object to Jaena's taking him away, but when she tells the boy the truth about his condition, he agrees to accompany her to a hospital. Unfortunately, the gift of learning magic is bittersweet: It comes with a deadly illness that only a few—like Mage Herrein, who employs Jaena as a Seeker—have ever survived. Jaena hopes that with her help Wiel will live and become a Mage instead of wasting away like countless others. On their journey, Jaena catches sight of a hulking, wolflike animal among the trees, which reignites her fear that demons have returned to the countryside. In theory, Mage Herrein can defend the city of Uthen, but his strength against demons and the Eastern Mage has been untested for over a hundred years. With the help of her charming friend Metten and the nobleman Halpen, who has a vestigial trace of taylen, Jaena tries to turn the dark tide that threatens to overwhelm the city as she guides Wiel to what she thinks is a safe harbor. In a welcome change to the typical hero’s journey, Lutz’s (Sword of Jashan, 2019, etc.) epic fantasy deftly explores the perspective of a guardian and mentor rather than a talented young charge. Jaena’s palpable sense of duty toward Wiel is a much more intriguing story thread than the catastrophes that serve as a call to adventure in many fantasy novels. The author delivers strong worldbuilding and a fast-paced plot, which serve the book well even when it edges toward standard fantasy fare. In addition, examinations of the characters’ complex emotions add depth when some of the twists in the tale are not hard for readers to foresee.
This well-crafted epic fantasy about a mentor’s travels veers off the path at just the right moments.Pub Date: July 17, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-948374-17-0
Page Count: 263
Publisher: Hydra Publications
Review Posted Online: Oct. 26, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2019
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Categories: GENERAL SCIENCE FICTION & FANTASY | FANTASY | GENERAL FANTASY | EPIC FANTASY
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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. 10, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2020
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BOOK REVIEW
BOOK TO SCREEN
Yale’s secret societies hide a supernatural secret in this fantasy/murder mystery/school story.
Most Yale students get admitted through some combination of impressive academics, athletics, extracurriculars, family connections, and donations, or perhaps bribing the right coach. Not Galaxy “Alex” Stern. The protagonist of Bardugo’s (King of Scars, 2019, etc.) first novel for adults, a high school dropout and low-level drug dealer, Alex got in because she can see dead people. A Yale dean who's a member of Lethe, one of the college’s famously mysterious secret societies, offers Alex a free ride if she will use her spook-spotting abilities to help Lethe with its mission: overseeing the other secret societies’ occult rituals. In Bardugo’s universe, the “Ancient Eight” secret societies (Lethe is the eponymous Ninth House) are not just old boys’ breeding grounds for the CIA, CEOs, Supreme Court justices, and so on, as they are in ours; they’re wielders of actual magic. Skull and Bones performs prognostications by borrowing patients from the local hospital, cutting them open, and examining their entrails. St. Elmo’s specializes in weather magic, useful for commodities traders; Aurelian, in unbreakable contracts; Manuscript goes in for glamours, or “illusions and lies,” helpful to politicians and movie stars alike. And all these rituals attract ghosts. It’s Alex’s job to keep the supernatural forces from embarrassing the magical elite by releasing chaos into the community (all while trying desperately to keep her grades up). “Dealing with ghosts was like riding the subway: Do not make eye contact. Do not smile. Do not engage. Otherwise, you never know what might follow you home.” A townie’s murder sets in motion a taut plot full of drug deals, drunken assaults, corruption, and cover-ups. Loyalties stretch and snap. Under it all runs the deep, dark river of ambition and anxiety that at once powers and undermines the Yale experience. Alex may have more reason than most to feel like an imposter, but anyone who’s spent time around the golden children of the Ivy League will likely recognize her self-doubt.
With an aura of both enchantment and authenticity, Bardugo’s compulsively readable novel leaves a portal ajar for equally dazzling sequels.Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-250-31307-2
Page Count: 448
Publisher: Flatiron Books
Review Posted Online: July 1, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2019
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