An action-packed adventure, a wealth of historical and cultural minutiae, and an engaging protagonist.
A historical novel set during the period of Kamehameha the Great’s battles to consolidate the Hawaiian Islands stars a fierce yet tenderhearted young warrior determined to bring security to his family.
It is 1790, and 17-year-old Kalani Moku Tana has been sent by his mother to Kona to live with his Aunt Lei. Here he is to attend Kamehameha’s Pa lua, a military training academy. He faces daunting challenges. His mother warned him: “The men in the school are chiefs. Unlike them, you cannot show ancestry to the gods. For this you will be tested, humiliated. Be strong. You must survive the training and become a koa” (warrior). Kalani’s father, captured during a battle, was sacrificed to the War God Ku. Gruesome human sacrifice had been brought to Hawaii by the Tahitians, who conquered the original settlers near the end of the first millennium A.D. On his first day at the academy, Kalani makes one fast friend, Moki, and one very dangerous enemy, Hauna. Kalani becomes skilled in the use of the Hawaiians’ primitive weaponry—slingshots, spears, and shark-toothed clubs and daggers. He also becomes entangled in a risky romantic liaison that will cost him dearly. The capture of the Western schooner Fair American presents a new opportunity for Kalani: He learns how to handle muskets and cannons. In this rip-roaring tale, Bill Fernandez (Hawaiian Rebellions, 2018, etc.) has done his research. His narrative is rich in small details of island life before the impact of Western civilization, such as keeping track of time by counting heartbeats. The numerous battle scenes are graphic, bloody, and riveting. And there is endless intrigue, as the islands’ various higher and lower chiefs (there are so many of them that readers are likely to have difficulty keeping them all straight) forge fluid alliances based on current opportunities or the chance to settle old grievances. The author’s wife, Judith Fernandez (Hawaiian Rebellions, 2018), contributes helpful hand-drawn maps of the islands, black-and-white photographs, and sketches. In addition, there’s a valuable upfront glossary of Hawaiian terminology used throughout the text.
An action-packed adventure, a wealth of historical and cultural minutiae, and an engaging protagonist.Pub Date: April 13, 2019
ISBN: 978-0-9990326-7-1
Page Count: 387
Publisher: Makani Kai Media
Review Posted Online: May 30, 2019
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Wacky plot keeps the pages turning and enduring schmaltzy romantic sequences.
Sisters work together to solve a child-abandonment case.
Ellie and Julia Cates have never been close. Julia is shy and brainy; Ellie gets by on charm and looks. Their differences must be tossed aside when a traumatized young girl wanders in from the forest into their hometown in Washington. The sisters’ professional skills are put to the test. Julia is a world-renowned child psychologist who has lost her edge. She is reeling from a case that went publicly sour. Though she was cleared of all wrongdoing, Julia’s name was tarnished, forcing her to shutter her Beverly Hills practice. Ellie Barton is the local police chief in Rain Valley, who’s never faced a tougher case. This is her chance to prove she is more than just a fading homecoming queen, but a scarcity of clues and a reluctant victim make locating the girl’s parents nearly impossible. Ellie places an SOS call to her sister; she needs an expert to rehabilitate this wild-child who has been living outside of civilization for years. Confronted with her professional demons, Julia once again has the opportunity to display her talents and salvage her reputation. Hannah (The Things We Do for Love, 2004, etc.) is at her best when writing from the girl’s perspective. The feral wolf-child keeps the reader interested long after the other, transparent characters have grown tiresome. Hannah’s torturously over-written romance passages are stale, but there are surprises in store as the sisters set about unearthing Alice’s past and creating a home for her.
Wacky plot keeps the pages turning and enduring schmaltzy romantic sequences.Pub Date: March 1, 2006
ISBN: 0-345-46752-3
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2005
A strict report, worthy of sympathy.
A violent surfacing of adolescence (which has little in common with Tarkington's earlier, broadly comic, Seventeen) has a compulsive impact.
"Nobody big except me" is the dream world of Holden Caulfield and his first person story is down to the basic, drab English of the pre-collegiate. For Holden is now being bounced from fancy prep, and, after a vicious evening with hall- and roommates, heads for New York to try to keep his latest failure from his parents. He tries to have a wild evening (all he does is pay the check), is terrorized by the hotel elevator man and his on-call whore, has a date with a girl he likes—and hates, sees his 10 year old sister, Phoebe. He also visits a sympathetic English teacher after trying on a drunken session, and when he keeps his date with Phoebe, who turns up with her suitcase to join him on his flight, he heads home to a hospital siege. This is tender and true, and impossible, in its picture of the old hells of young boys, the lonesomeness and tentative attempts to be mature and secure, the awful block between youth and being grown-up, the fright and sickness that humans and their behavior cause the challenging, the dramatization of the big bang. It is a sorry little worm's view of the off-beat of adult pressure, of contemporary strictures and conformity, of sentiment….
A strict report, worthy of sympathy.Pub Date: June 15, 1951
ISBN: 0316769177
Page Count: -
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: Nov. 2, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 1951
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