Much longer than the first but just as swiftly paced, this fantasy sequel should lock in readers for the long haul.
An orphan faces unrelenting challenges during a competition to decide which teen is worthy of becoming the Tribe leader in this continuation of Caskabel’s (Drakon Book I, 2016) series.
Having made it through a ferocious 40-day trial, Da-Ren and 12 peers are next in the hands of Chaka, Leader of the Guides of the Uncarved. The 13 boys have no carvings, which are usually indicative of failure during the trial. This means that the best from the group could be the Tribe’s Khun (leader), if current chief Khun-Taa dies within the subsequent five winters. Some boys can’t cut it, with carvings designating them warriors instead, while others end up as corpses for the pyre. Their tests include braving reputed evil spirits populating the Forest and each boy killing an opponent inside the arena-like Wolfhowl. Unfortunately, Da-Ren may lose favor with the First of the Tribe’s Ouna-Mas (witches), Sah-Ouna, though it’s believed she knows who the next Khun will be. No one’s pleased that Zeria, an othertriber, evades Da-Ren during a hunt, but he secretly aids in her escape. While fate plays a part in naming the Khun, Da-Ren soon learns that some in the Tribe may have already chosen a leader. In this fast-moving installment, Caskabel picks up right where Book I left off, making reading the previous fantasy novel a virtual necessity. Da-Ren’s first-person narrative is striking (vividly detailing why some characters have snake-egg-shaped heads) and rife with anticipation. He, for one, teases a death immediately before it happens, and an older Da-Ren (telling his engrossing story to a monk) bears a scar whose origin is later revealed. At the same time, there’s unmistakable profundity: Da-Ren’s potential love for Zeria seems doomed, and many children deftly concoct Legends of fathers they’ve never known (like Da-Ren and his “dad,” Er-Ren). In a setup for Book III, Da-Ren contemplates his future with the Tribe, which has aspirations for conquering cities in the South.
Much longer than the first but just as swiftly paced, this fantasy sequel should lock in readers for the long haul.Pub Date: Dec. 16, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-5411-6371-3
Page Count: 376
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: Aug. 1, 2017
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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Hilderbrand’s portrait of the upper-crust Tate clan through the years is so deliciously addictive that it will be the “It”...
Queen of the summer novel—how could she not be, with all her stories set on an island—Hilderbrand delivers a beguiling ninth (The Castaways, 2009, etc.), featuring romance and mystery on isolated Tuckernuck Island.
The Tate family has had a house on Tuckernuck (just off the coast of swanky Nantucket) for generations. It has been empty for years, but now Birdie wants to spend a quiet mother-daughter week there with Chess before Chess’s wedding to Michael Morgan. Then the unthinkable happens—perfect Chess (beautiful, rich, well-bred food editor of Glamorous Home) dumps the equally perfect Michael. She quits her job, leaves her New York apartment for Birdie’s home in New Canaan, and all without explanation. Then the unraveling continues: Michael dies in a rock-climbing accident, leaving Chess not quite a widow, but devastated, guilty, unreachable in the shell of herself. Birdie invites her younger daughter Tate (a pretty, naïve computer genius) and her own bohemian sister India, whose husband, world-renowned sculptor Bill Bishop, killed himself years ago, to Tuckernuck for the month of July, in the hopes that the three of them can break through to Chess. Hunky Barrett Lee is their caretaker, coming from Nantucket twice a day to bring groceries and take away laundry (idyllic Tuckernuck is remote—no phone, no hot water, no ferry) as he’s also inspiring renewed lust in Tate, who has had a crush on him since she was a kid. The author jumps between the four women—Tate and her blossoming relationship with Barrett, India and her relationship with Lula Simpson, a painter at the Academy where India is a curator, Birdie, who is surprised by the recent kindnesses of ex-husband Grant, and finally Chess, who in her journal is uncoiling the sordid, sad circumstances of her break with normal life and Michael’s death.
Hilderbrand’s portrait of the upper-crust Tate clan through the years is so deliciously addictive that it will be the “It” beach book of the summer.Pub Date: July 6, 2010
ISBN: 978-0-316-04387-8
Page Count: 416
Publisher: Reagan Arthur/Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: June 3, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2010
Catch-22 is also concerned with some of war's horrors and atrocities, and it is at times painfully grim.
Catch-22 is an unusual, wildly inventive comic novel about World War II, and its publishers are planning considerable publicity for it.
Set on the tiny island of Pianosa in the Mediterranean Sea, the novel is devoted to a long series of impossible, illogical adventures engaged in by the members of the 256th bombing squadron, an unlikely combat group whose fanatical commander, Colonel Cathcart, keeps increasing the men's quota of missions until they reach the ridiculous figure of 80. The book's central character is Captain Yossarian, the squadron's lead bombardier, who is surrounded at all times by the ironic and incomprehensible and who directs all his energies towards evading his odd role in the war. His companions are an even more peculiar lot: Lieutenant Scheisskopf, who loved to win parades; Major Major Major, the victim of a life-long series of practical jokes, beginning with his name; the mess officer, Milo Minderbinder, who built a food syndicate into an international cartel; and Major de Coverley whose mission in life was to rent apartments for the officers and enlisted men during their rest leaves. Eventually, after Cathcart has exterminated nearly all of Yossarian's buddies through the suicidal missions, Yossarian decides to desert — and he succeeds.
Catch-22 is also concerned with some of war's horrors and atrocities, and it is at times painfully grim.Pub Date: Oct. 10, 1961
ISBN: 0684833395
Page Count: 468
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Oct. 7, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 1961
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