Promising opener to a female-led series that doesn’t yet soar to incredible heights.
In this new edition of his first novel, Sutherland (The Last Dragoneer, 2014, etc.) creates a modern-feeling world before Noah’s flood, a world populated with dragons, warriors, and a determined young woman who fearlessly seeks her proper place in the world.
Eighteen-year-old Susah has long been able to sense the thoughts and feelings of animals, a gift that once keeps her and her young cousin out of the jaws of desperate wolves. She loves exploring her father’s garden, a forest where all types of animals gather and are protected by Noah, the ark builder. But she is also fascinated by Sethopolis, a city of millions, where people live in skyscrapers and drive hovercrafts. Her father disapproves of everything from that great city, so it’s a huge treat to be invited out to dinner there with her cousin’s family. But as much wonder as the city holds, it also hides dangers: half-ogres (hogres) roam the streets in gangs, and Lilith, a giantess, is determined to gain the secrets of Eden. When Lilith senses Susah’s growing power, she commands her minions to hunt Susah down and kill those with her. After the hogre pack kills Susah’s aunt and uncle, the night almost ends tragically for Susah and her cousins as well—until they receive a timely rescue from Dachux, head of the Dragoneers. From her first flight in a chariot pulled by dragons, Susah feels called to become a Dragoneer herself, despite her father’s wishes. After returning home, Susah runs away to join the military in hopes of getting into the Dragoneer Corps, but she gets further embroiled in Lilith’s plans—and becomes instrumental in keeping Lilith out of Eden. Sutherland creates an original vision of a corrupt antediluvian world, one that feels modern yet magical. The novel’s pacing, however, makes it difficult to dive into the story: for instance, it’s not clear until a few chapters in that chariots and skyscrapers coexist, and it’s nearly half the book before Susah follows her dream of becoming a Dragoneer. Susah’s training feels suitably militaristic, but it happens too quickly to be believable, despite some hand-waving explanatory logic from the narrative. And while Susah is well-developed, few of the other characters emerge as three-dimensional, with Lilith taking part in mustache-twirling-level dialogues.
Promising opener to a female-led series that doesn’t yet soar to incredible heights.Pub Date: Aug. 18, 2014
ISBN: 978-1-937366-11-7
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Narrow Way Press LLC
Review Posted Online: Aug. 20, 2015
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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