A compelling start to a historical fantasy series about a troubled warrior seeking redemption.
Spader tells the story of a tormented medieval wolf demon in this debut novel.
In this first installment of a fantasy series, the year is 782, and King Karl of the Franks attempts to consolidate his hold on Saxony, converting the Saxons to Christianity and stamping out the last vestiges of paganism. Enter Gerwulf, a half-Frankish, half-Saxon Wulfhedinn (wolf demon): “His mother baptized the boy a Christian, but that did not drive out his father’s beast. She sent him to the monastery to shield him from the demon, but the boy defied God and embraced the wolf spirit.” Forever seeking a way to purify his soul and quiet the beast within him, Gerwulf sneaks into Karl’s camp, hoping to steal a holy relic, but a chance encounter with a mad monk leads him to change his plans. The monk recruits Gerwulf to serve Karl: the king sends the wolf demon on a mission to track down Widukind, the last rebellious Saxon lord. Widukind is rumored to be hiding out at an old sacred site deep in the Teutoburg Forest, surrounded by his own band of wolf warriors and protected by the magic of a powerful witch. If Gerwulf can help bring Widukind to heel, Karl promises that the tortured Wulfhedinn’s soul can be saved, in this world and the next. But to find salvation, Gerwulf must first embrace his own demon. Spader writes in an easy, rambling prose that luxuriates in all the medieval details of her world, from the weapons to the textiles to the smells of camps and woods. Gerwulf is plagued by an interior monologue that represents the heathen inside him, rendered as free verse and a bit reminiscent of Anglo-Saxon poetry: “I approach the king, high upon his throne / …abandon the wolf pelt / Stripped to fresh pink skin, my back whole / Kneeling.” The book strikes an appealing balance between historical fiction, sword and sorcery, and a noirish detective story, with quick pacing and just enough worldbuilding to lend weight to the plot. Sequels are planned, and they are welcome: the reader should be eager to see what other secrets Spader’s vast medieval forests might yield.
A compelling start to a historical fantasy series about a troubled warrior seeking redemption.Pub Date: N/A
ISBN: 978-0-9971535-0-7
Page Count: -
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: Aug. 3, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2016
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Briskly written soap with down-to-earth types, mostly without the lachrymose contrivances of Hannah’s previous titles...
Sisters in and out of love.
Meghann Dontess is a high-powered matrimonial lawyer in Seattle who prefers sex with strangers to emotional intimacy: a strategy bound to backfire sooner or later, warns her tough-talking shrink. It’s advice Meghann decides to ignore, along with the memories of her difficult childhood, neglectful mother, and younger sister. Though she managed to reunite Claire with Sam Cavenaugh (her father but not Meghann’s) when her mother abandoned both girls long ago, Meghann still feels guilty that her sister’s life doesn’t measure up, at least on her terms. Never married, Claire ekes out a living running a country campground with her dad and is raising her six-year-old daughter on her own. When she falls in love for the first time with an up-and-coming country musician, Meghann is appalled: Bobby Austin is a three-time loser at marriage—how on earth can Claire be so blind? Bobby’s blunt explanation doesn’t exactly satisfy the concerned big sister, who busies herself planning Claire’s dream wedding anyway. And, to relieve the stress, she beds various guys she picks up in bars, including Dr. Joe Wyatt, a neurosurgeon turned homeless drifter after the demise of his beloved wife Diane (whom he euthanized). When Claire’s awful headache turns out to be a kind of brain tumor known among neurologists as a “terminator,” Joe rallies. Turns out that Claire had befriended his wife on her deathbed, and now in turn he must try to save her. Is it too late? Will Meghann find true love at last?
Briskly written soap with down-to-earth types, mostly without the lachrymose contrivances of Hannah’s previous titles (Distant Shores, 2002, etc.). Kudos for skipping the snifflefest this time around.Pub Date: May 1, 2003
ISBN: 0-345-45073-6
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2003
Coelho's placebo has racked up impressive sales in Brazil and Europe. Americans should flock to it like gulls.
Coelho is a Brazilian writer with four books to his credit. Following Diary of a Magus (1992—not reviewed) came this book, published in Brazil in 1988: it's an interdenominational, transcendental, inspirational fable—in other words, a bag of wind.
The story is about a youth empowered to follow his dream. Santiago is an Andalusian shepherd boy who learns through a dream of a treasure in the Egyptian pyramids. An old man, the king of Salem, the first of various spiritual guides, tells the boy that he has discovered his destiny: "to realize one's destiny is a person's only real obligation." So Santiago sells his sheep, sails to Tangier, is tricked out of his money, regains it through hard work, crosses the desert with a caravan, stops at an oasis long enough to fall in love, escapes from warring tribesmen by performing a miracle, reaches the pyramids, and eventually gets both the gold and the girl. Along the way he meets an Englishman who describes the Soul of the World; the desert woman Fatima, who teaches him the Language of the World; and an alchemist who says, "Listen to your heart" A message clings like ivy to every encounter; everyone, but everyone, has to put in their two cents' worth, from the crystal merchant to the camel driver ("concentrate always on the present, you'll be a happy man"). The absence of characterization and overall blandness suggest authorship by a committee of self-improvement pundits—a far cry from Saint- Exupery's The Little Prince: that flagship of the genre was a genuine charmer because it clearly derived from a quirky, individual sensibility.
Coelho's placebo has racked up impressive sales in Brazil and Europe. Americans should flock to it like gulls.Pub Date: July 1, 1993
ISBN: 0-06-250217-4
Page Count: 192
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 1993
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
BOOK TO SCREEN
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