An impressive magical beginning for the legend of Scargen and his motley crew.
In this high-tech fantasy, young Thomas Scargen finds himself embroiled in a magical war while searching for his missing father.
Carl Scargen has been excavating artifacts from Old Egypt, including the sites of the Great Pyramid and the Sphinx, which were buried under sand during the Tech War. Eventually, Scargen’s team finds an ancient gem that radiates immense energy. When the doctor touches the object, a dangerous villain materializes. Meanwhile, back in New Salem, Scargen’s son Thomas wakes from a horrible dream in which his father has gone missing. No sooner does he begin investigating than a magical battle breaks out on his doorstep. During a fight against black ooze creatures called Eerah, Thomas meets a Spirit Summoner named Yareli, her ghostly companion Wiyaloo, and the teleporting dragon Bartleby. They’ve come to escort him to the great mage Ziza Bebami in the mystical city of Sirati. The group is waylaid, however, by agents of the merciless Grayden Arkmalis. Why is Thomas special to both the Council of Mages and an evil, nearly invincible warlord? Perhaps a stone gauntlet of awesome power, wielded by a long line of noble adventurers, holds the answer. Debut author Caracciolo’s sprawling, cleanly written adventure offers everything from librarian trees to soldiers who ride giant bats. Additionally, he stocks seemingly every corner of his futuristic fantasy with vampires, werewolves, intelligent machines and more. Fusing these elements with some comic book tropes, he builds a rollicking tale of longing and self-discovery. Readers will welcome his dry wit: “The imp wore a tan button-down shirt and a green vest—formal attire for an imp, seeing that imps did not normally wear clothing.” Sometimes, though, the prevalence of cockney accents goes overboard: “We ’av given dem duh merchandise, and dey ’av given us duh credits in return.” Nevertheless, Caracciolo’s nonstop imaginative display is riveting. His tale zips among feverishly concocted set pieces and lovingly rendered characters. The final showdown, crafted with aplomb, whets appetites for what should be a doubly epic second volume.
An impressive magical beginning for the legend of Scargen and his motley crew.Pub Date: May 18, 2013
ISBN: 978-0615779201
Page Count: 504
Publisher: Roundstone Publishing
Review Posted Online: Oct. 3, 2013
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
King handles his first novel with considerable accomplishment and very little hokum—it's only too easy to believe that these...
Figuratively and literally shattering moments of hoRRRRRipilication in Chamberlain, Maine where stones fly from the sky rather than from the hands of the villagers (as they did in "The Lottery," although the latter are equal to other forms of persecution).
All beginning when Carrie White discovers a gift with telekinetic powers (later established as a genetic fact), after she menstruates in full ignorance of the process and thinks she is bleeding to death while the other monsters in the high school locker room bait and bully her mercilessly. Carrie is the only child of a fundamentalist freak mother who has brought her up with a concept of sin which no blood of the Lamb can wash clean. In addition to a sympathetic principal and gym teacher, there's one girl who wishes to atone and turns her date for the spring ball over to Carrie who for the first time is happy, beautiful and acknowledged as such. But there will be hell to pay for this success—not only her mother but two youngsters who douse her in buckets of fresh-killed pig blood so that Carrie once again uses her "wild talent," flexes her mind and a complete catastrophe (explosion and an uncontrolled fire) virtually destroys the town.
King handles his first novel with considerable accomplishment and very little hokum—it's only too easy to believe that these youngsters who once ate peanut butter now scrawl "Carrie White eats shit." But as they still say around here, "Sit a spell and collect yourself."Pub Date: April 8, 1974
ISBN: 0385086954
Page Count: 216
Publisher: Doubleday
Review Posted Online: Sept. 26, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 1974
PERSPECTIVES
SEEN & HEARD
BOOK TO SCREEN
A first novel, this is also a first person account of Scout's (Jean Louise) recall of the years that led to the ending of a mystery, the breaking of her brother Jem's elbow, the death of her father's enemy — and the close of childhood years. A widower, Atticus raises his children with legal dispassion and paternal intelligence, and is ably abetted by Calpurnia, the colored cook, while the Alabama town of Maycomb, in the 1930's, remains aloof to their divergence from its tribal patterns. Scout and Jem, with their summer-time companion, Dill, find their paths free from interference — but not from dangers; their curiosity about the imprisoned Boo, whose miserable past is incorporated in their play, results in a tentative friendliness; their fears of Atticus' lack of distinction is dissipated when he shoots a mad dog; his defense of a Negro accused of raping a white girl, Mayella Ewell, is followed with avid interest and turns the rabble whites against him. Scout is the means of averting an attack on Atticus but when he loses the case it is Boo who saves Jem and Scout by killing Mayella's father when he attempts to murder them. The shadows of a beginning for black-white understanding, the persistent fight that Scout carries on against school, Jem's emergence into adulthood, Calpurnia's quiet power, and all the incidents touching on the children's "growing outward" have an attractive starchiness that keeps this southern picture pert and provocative. There is much advance interest in this book; it has been selected by the Literary Guild and Reader's Digest; it should win many friends.
Pub Date: July 11, 1960
ISBN: 0060935464
Page Count: 323
Publisher: Lippincott
Review Posted Online: Oct. 7, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 1960
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
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