A fantasy parody boasting strong morals and rock references.
This fantasy debut follows a man from the real world as he enters the strange realm of his wizard brother for a humorously magical quest.
Prince, a 20-something from Ocala, Florida, wakes up on a pile of straw. When he answers the knocking outside his abode, he finds his older brother, Ricky, dressed in the robe and conical hat of a wizard. Outside, Prince (named after the musician) discovers the town of Dereliction, which is in the medieval land of Noreth Tungol. Prince has no memory of leaving Florida, but Ricky says he’s been there for “quite a while.” Soon, Prince meets Manciple, the wizard training Ricky. At the behest of King Crimson, the trio agrees to a secret mission through the Elfwood forest and into Sawtooth Mountain. They are to steal the treasure of the Dragon Men. “Confrontation” with the Dragon Men, says King Crimson, “will not be permissible.” After a short peril involving spiders (one small, one gigantic), the group infiltrates the mountain lair full of riches. Naturally, they run afoul of King Draco, who breathes fire at them. Reacting instinctively, Prince hurls a precious stone that he’d found earlier at the fire-breather. Draco chokes on the stone and dies. So much for King Crimson’s orders for secrecy. It’s easy to tell that debut author Cactus adores the fantasy genre and its many tropes; while the events portrayed are incredibly silly, Prince takes as much of it as seriously as he can, especially in his guilt over killing someone. Cactus frequently indulges in dorky, Monty Python–style puns, but the prose itself is clever: Manciple “was quite possibly as old as the dirt he walked upon.” In setting fantastic scenes, Cactus usually succeeds with a controlled wordiness; he calls the forest “an asymmetrical sea of anxiety personified as wood.” Eventually, after much travel and chaos, Prince wonders if he’s imagining the entire adventure, though readers should keep in mind that “knowledge is the true power of the universe.” Regardless of its origin, the journey reignites the bond between two brothers.
A fantasy parody boasting strong morals and rock references.Pub Date: Aug. 28, 2015
ISBN: 978-1-5171-0385-9
Page Count: 456
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: March 4, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2016
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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