An inventive novel that runs amok.
A supernatural medical thriller that straddles several genres.
Spencer Williams, with his long brown hair and gentle eyes, might just be the messiah. He’s also a medical researcher who has created a new drug that he hopes will cure depression, increase intelligence, send muscle mass through the roof and generally speedup human evolution. When Dr. Lara Nash, the new vice president of research and development for Global Pharmaceuticals, approaches Spencer, the scientist must decide if he’s willing to sell out his life’s work to gain corporate support. But Spencer isn’t your average lab nerd. He has psychic powers that enable him to read minds, quickly evaluate personality and character, and gain a supernatural understanding of his environment. Atkins (Best Place to Die, 2012, etc.) has crafted an epic story that involves multiple orders of angels and demons and an ancient battle between “the Creator” and the devil, aka Karel Von Graff, CEO of Global Pharmaceuticals. Soon, Karel uses his power to control Lara, Spencer and others. In the end, only Spencer’s guardian angels can protect his invention and save humanity. The novel combines the grand mythology of a fantasy novel with the paranoid suspicion and verisimilitude of a medical thriller, but the results are uneven. Atkins is a physician who invokes a palpable sense of outrage about the pharmaceutical industry’s cozy relationship with researchers, doctors and universities. The novel, however, struggles with the scope of its action, and the fantastical elements often feel forced. Characters tend to deliver long internal monologues that explain their powers and ruminate on the battles between good and evil. At times, it’s hard to determine who to care about. For example, Lara is a sympathetic character in a cutthroat world, even though she’s literally doing the work of the devil. Each of the characters also stumbles into awkward romances that feel like unnecessary attempts to heighten the novel’s emotional impact. The book is imaginative, however, and there’s something undeniably delicious about the devil saying, “I’m the head of the world’s largest pharmaceutical company…who did you think I’d be?” Ultimately, however, this thriller suffers from too much exposition, simplistic characters and a lack of focus.
An inventive novel that runs amok.Pub Date: Oct. 27, 2012
ISBN: 978-0786753826
Page Count: 290
Publisher: Argo-Navis
Review Posted Online: July 10, 2013
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
An author to watch, Buehlman is now two for two in delivering eerie, offbeat novels with admirable literary skill.
Cormac McCarthy's The Road meets Chaucer's Canterbury Tales in this frightful medieval epic about an orphan girl with visionary powers in plague-devastated France.
The year is 1348. The conflict between France and England is nothing compared to the all-out war building between good angels and fallen ones for control of heaven (though a scene in which soldiers are massacred by a rainbow of arrows is pretty horrific). Among mortals, only the girl, Delphine, knows of the cataclysm to come. Angels speak to her, issuing warnings—and a command to run. A pack of thieves is about to carry her off and rape her when she is saved by a disgraced knight, Thomas, with whom she teams on a march across the parched landscape. Survivors desperate for food have made donkey a delicacy and don't mind eating human flesh. The few healthy people left lock themselves in, not wanting to risk contact with strangers, no matter how dire the strangers' needs. To venture out at night is suicidal: Horrific forces swirl about, ravaging living forms. Lethal black clouds, tentacled water creatures and assorted monsters are comfortable in the daylight hours as well. The knight and a third fellow journeyer, a priest, have difficulty believing Delphine's visions are real, but with oblivion lurking in every shadow, they don't have any choice but to trust her. The question becomes, can she trust herself? Buehlman, who drew upon his love of Fitzgerald and Hemingway in his acclaimed Southern horror novel, Those Across the River (2011), slips effortlessly into a different kind of literary sensibility, one that doesn't scrimp on earthy humor and lyrical writing in the face of unspeakable horrors. The power of suggestion is the author's strong suit, along with first-rate storytelling talent.
An author to watch, Buehlman is now two for two in delivering eerie, offbeat novels with admirable literary skill.Pub Date: Oct. 2, 2012
ISBN: 978-1-937007-86-7
Page Count: 432
Publisher: Ace/Berkley
Review Posted Online: Sept. 1, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2012
At Buckkeep in the Six Duchies, young Fitz, the bastard son of Prince Chivalry, is raised as a stablehand by old warrior Burrich. But when Chivalry dies without legitimate issue—murdered, it's rumored—Fitz, at the orders of King Shrewd, is brought into the palace and trained in the knightly and courtly arts. Meanwhile, secretly at night, he receives instruction from another bastard, Chade, in the assassin's craft. Now, King Shrewd's subjects are imperiled by the visits of the Red-Ship Raiders—formidable warriors who pillage the seacoasts and turn their human victims into vicious, destructive zombies. Since rehabilitating the zombies proves impossible, it's Fitz's task to go abroad covertly and kill them as quickly and humanely as possible. Shrewd orders that Fitz be taught the Skill—mental powers of telepathy and coercion possessed by all those of the royal line; his teacher is Galen, a sadistic ally of the popinjay Prince Regal, who hates Fitz all the more for his loyalty to Shrewd's other son, the stalwart soldier Verity. Galen brutalizes Fitz and, unknown to anyone, implants a mental block that prevents Fitz from using the Skill. Later, Shrewd decrees that, to cement an alliance, Verity shall wed the Princess Kettricken, heir to a remote yet rich mountain kingdom. Verity, occupied with Skillfully keeping the Red-Ship Raiders at bay, can't go to collect his bride, so Regal and Fitz are sent. Finally, Fitz must discover the depths of Regal's perfidy, recapture his true Skill, win Kettricken's heart for Verity, and help Verity defeat the Raiders. An intriguing, controlled, and remarkably assured debut, at once satisfyingly self-contained yet leaving plenty of scope for future extensions and embellishments.
Pub Date: April 17, 1995
ISBN: 0-553-37445-1
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Spectra/Bantam
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 1995
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