A sweeping fusion of fantasy elements, boiled to perfection.
Vampire mythology, music, magic and science fiction fuse in the second installment of Ahsanuddin’s (Sunset, 2011) Pact Arcanum series, a homoerotic tale of lust and power.
Sentinel Antonio Martinez is quick to realize he’s found three members of the Four Winds in Rory, Ana and Takeshi, the young musicians of the band Nightfall. Having rescued the longtime friends from two bloodthirsty predators, Martinez assists the trio in understanding their destiny and the bandmates, out celebrating the debut of their breakthrough album, soon find life has more to offer than mere concert dates. Beginning in the not-so-distant future of 2015 and continuing to 2039, the newly reborn musicians are soon embroiled in a world of Nightwalkers, Sentinels and the dark Court of Shadows. The novel’s science fiction elements, particularly the author’s use of House Lucian, House Jiao-long, off-world travel and other cosmic references, evoke Frank Herbert’s operatic Dune novels. Hierarchal themes may also ring familiar to adult readers of Richelle Mead’s Vampire Academy series, though Ahsanuddin brings a crisp edge to the telling. And, like Vampire Academy, the allure of forbidden romance plays an integral role in the development of the novel’s central characters, particularly in Rory’s love for Takeshi. Toss in the usual doses of Anne Rice’s homoerotic Vampire Chronicles and Stephanie Meyers virtuous Twilight series and you will find Ahsanuddin’s surprisingly provocative sophomore novel. The story’s main characters, like Rice’s vampire much hyped Lestat, are beautiful, eager musicians consumed by the eternal struggle of good and evil. Ahsanuddin melds the elements at his command with powerful literary alchemy. Eloquently written, the words more than the tale shape the romantic flow of this adult story as the members of Nightfall struggle to understand their gifts and the drama of their new lives. This prequel to Ahsanuddin’s first novel Sunset takes readers on an engaging trip into the dark underworld of desire and power—a foray written with sharp clarity and passion.
A sweeping fusion of fantasy elements, boiled to perfection.Pub Date: April 10, 2011
ISBN: 978-1456358440
Page Count: 313
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: May 10, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2011
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
An author to watch, Buehlman is now two for two in delivering eerie, offbeat novels with admirable literary skill.
Cormac McCarthy's The Road meets Chaucer's Canterbury Tales in this frightful medieval epic about an orphan girl with visionary powers in plague-devastated France.
The year is 1348. The conflict between France and England is nothing compared to the all-out war building between good angels and fallen ones for control of heaven (though a scene in which soldiers are massacred by a rainbow of arrows is pretty horrific). Among mortals, only the girl, Delphine, knows of the cataclysm to come. Angels speak to her, issuing warnings—and a command to run. A pack of thieves is about to carry her off and rape her when she is saved by a disgraced knight, Thomas, with whom she teams on a march across the parched landscape. Survivors desperate for food have made donkey a delicacy and don't mind eating human flesh. The few healthy people left lock themselves in, not wanting to risk contact with strangers, no matter how dire the strangers' needs. To venture out at night is suicidal: Horrific forces swirl about, ravaging living forms. Lethal black clouds, tentacled water creatures and assorted monsters are comfortable in the daylight hours as well. The knight and a third fellow journeyer, a priest, have difficulty believing Delphine's visions are real, but with oblivion lurking in every shadow, they don't have any choice but to trust her. The question becomes, can she trust herself? Buehlman, who drew upon his love of Fitzgerald and Hemingway in his acclaimed Southern horror novel, Those Across the River (2011), slips effortlessly into a different kind of literary sensibility, one that doesn't scrimp on earthy humor and lyrical writing in the face of unspeakable horrors. The power of suggestion is the author's strong suit, along with first-rate storytelling talent.
An author to watch, Buehlman is now two for two in delivering eerie, offbeat novels with admirable literary skill.Pub Date: Oct. 2, 2012
ISBN: 978-1-937007-86-7
Page Count: 432
Publisher: Ace/Berkley
Review Posted Online: Sept. 1, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2012
At Buckkeep in the Six Duchies, young Fitz, the bastard son of Prince Chivalry, is raised as a stablehand by old warrior Burrich. But when Chivalry dies without legitimate issue—murdered, it's rumored—Fitz, at the orders of King Shrewd, is brought into the palace and trained in the knightly and courtly arts. Meanwhile, secretly at night, he receives instruction from another bastard, Chade, in the assassin's craft. Now, King Shrewd's subjects are imperiled by the visits of the Red-Ship Raiders—formidable warriors who pillage the seacoasts and turn their human victims into vicious, destructive zombies. Since rehabilitating the zombies proves impossible, it's Fitz's task to go abroad covertly and kill them as quickly and humanely as possible. Shrewd orders that Fitz be taught the Skill—mental powers of telepathy and coercion possessed by all those of the royal line; his teacher is Galen, a sadistic ally of the popinjay Prince Regal, who hates Fitz all the more for his loyalty to Shrewd's other son, the stalwart soldier Verity. Galen brutalizes Fitz and, unknown to anyone, implants a mental block that prevents Fitz from using the Skill. Later, Shrewd decrees that, to cement an alliance, Verity shall wed the Princess Kettricken, heir to a remote yet rich mountain kingdom. Verity, occupied with Skillfully keeping the Red-Ship Raiders at bay, can't go to collect his bride, so Regal and Fitz are sent. Finally, Fitz must discover the depths of Regal's perfidy, recapture his true Skill, win Kettricken's heart for Verity, and help Verity defeat the Raiders. An intriguing, controlled, and remarkably assured debut, at once satisfyingly self-contained yet leaving plenty of scope for future extensions and embellishments.
Pub Date: April 17, 1995
ISBN: 0-553-37445-1
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Spectra/Bantam
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 1995
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