A deeply satisfying but bleak, dark work; its only illumination are flashes of high tragedy and perhaps the glimmers of a...
Humanity teeters toward doom in the concluding Chronicle of the Unhewn Throne (The Providence of Fire, 2015, etc.).
The invading Urghul army nears the heart of the crumbling Annurian empire, led by Long Fist, the human host of Meshkent, the god of pain. The Annurian general, Ran il Tornja, appears to be defending the empire, but his main goal is to kill both Long Fist and the courtesan Triste, the human host of Ciena, goddess of pleasure. Doing so will exterminate most of humanity while potentially converting the remainder to il Tornja’s own kind, the long-lived, emotionless Csestriim. Kaden, the abdicated emperor, abandons his ineffectual attempts at politics and devotes himself to protecting Meshkent and Ciena’s hosts. His sister, Adare, the self-declared new emperor, rallies Annur’s defenses and tries to defuse the plots of il Tornja, her baby’s father. Her brother Valyn, betrayed by Adare and blinded by il Tornja, searches both for a purpose and the death of Balendin, Long Fist’s deputy, a leach whose magical power feeds on pain and terror. Many classic epic fantasies have concluded with the defeat of the Big Bad, followed by the wiping away of pain and terror and the start of a glorious, happy future for the hero. This novel lays out a much more plausible truth: it’s difficult forging a future on a nation ruined by war and civil unrest; the past’s consequences persist. No one is wholly good or wholly bad, and sometimes, even when protagonists have reached the very limits of their strength to earn their happy endings, there is no happy ending available, no matter how deserving they are of such a thing.
A deeply satisfying but bleak, dark work; its only illumination are flashes of high tragedy and perhaps the glimmers of a realistic but not far-ranging hope.Pub Date: March 15, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-7653-3642-2
Page Count: 656
Publisher: Tor
Review Posted Online: Jan. 9, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2016
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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