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PROPHECY OF A PLANET

THE MEETING

A slow but steady introduction to an indelible world.

Many years after a devastating battle, Clans on a distant planet may be preparing for another conflict in this launch of a fantasy series.

There are eight Clans on the planet Jahanet. This opening installment zeros in on four of them, all residing on Jahanet’s largest Domain, Icka. In the present day, three members of Clan Adeian—Draka, Yar, and Scarra—ride separately to the ruins of Lord Matoca’s Kazar (castle). Years ago, Matoca, in an apparent power play, initiated an attack against Clan Veloian. But when Clans Dekam and Arkarian aligned with Veloian, the Adeians lost what came to be known as the Great Battle. Though Matoca called the current meeting with Draka, Yar, and Scarra, no one has seen him since the Great Battle and most people even assume he is dead. Draka first joined Clan Adeian as a bondservant (slave) but has since become a warrior. He has a fondness for Scarra, a woman who’s always shown him kindness, but abhors Yar, who calls him “half-breed” (Draka evidently has the face of an Adeian and build of an Arkarian). But once it’s clear that Matoca is planning to ignite a second battle among the Clans, Draka wonders whether he’ll be able to trust anyone. Smellie (David and the Wizard, 2011) scrupulously details life on Jahanet in this novella. This sets an unhurried pace, with comprehensive descriptions of geography, customs, and terminology, such as cycles (years) and high rock (mountain). Recurrent flashbacks to the Great Battle, however, are often exciting and intense, even if they’re too brief. There are likewise captivating creatures, from Lentars, giant flying beasts with sharp teeth and tails, to the six-legged Zaruses that people ride like horses. While the dialogue is a mix of contemporary and archaic (primarily “thou” or its variations), it’s occasionally stilted. For example, Draka wonders, “What art thou up to, Matoca?” while in some instances “thou” is grammatically incorrect (“What happened to thou?”).

A slow but steady introduction to an indelible world.

Pub Date: March 21, 2014

ISBN: 978-1-4974-1910-0

Page Count: 160

Publisher: CreateSpace

Review Posted Online: Nov. 16, 2018

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NINTH HOUSE

With an aura of both enchantment and authenticity, Bardugo’s compulsively readable novel leaves a portal ajar for equally...

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  • New York Times Bestseller

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: June 30, 2019

Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2019

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A BLIGHT OF BLACKWINGS

A charming and persuasive entry that will leave readers impatiently awaiting the concluding volume.

Book 2 of Hearne's latest fantasy trilogy, The Seven Kennings (A Plague of Giants, 2017), set in a multiracial world thrust into turmoil by an invasion of peculiar giants.

In this world, most races have their own particular magical endowment, or “kenning,” though there are downsides to trying to gain the magic (an excellent chance of being killed instead) and using it (rapid aging and death). Most recently discovered is the sixth kenning, whose beneficiaries can talk to and command animals. The story canters along, although with multiple first-person narrators, it's confusing at times. Some characters are familiar, others are new, most of them with their own problems to solve, all somehow caught up in the grand design. To escape her overbearing father and the unreasoning violence his kind represents, fire-giant Olet Kanek leads her followers into the far north, hoping to found a new city where the races and kennings can peacefully coexist. Joining Olet are young Abhinava Khose, discoverer of the sixth kenning, and, later, Koesha Gansu (kenning: air), captain of an all-female crew shipwrecked by deep-sea monsters. Elsewhere, Hanima, who commands hive insects, struggles to free her city from the iron grip of wealthy, callous merchant monarchists. Other threads focus on the Bone Giants, relentless invaders seeking the still-unknown seventh kenning, whose confidence that this can defeat the other six is deeply disturbing. Under Hearne's light touch, these elements mesh perfectly, presenting an inventive, eye-filling panorama; satisfying (and, where appropriate, well-resolved) plotlines; and tensions between the races and their kennings to supply much of the drama.

A charming and persuasive entry that will leave readers impatiently awaiting the concluding volume.

Pub Date: Feb. 4, 2020

ISBN: 978-0-345-54857-3

Page Count: 592

Publisher: Del Rey/Ballantine

Review Posted Online: Nov. 24, 2019

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2019

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