As good as or better than the opener. Grab.
Second installment of an evocative Victorian gothic (“supranatural”) fantasy trilogy, following The Oversight (2014).
In London, the Oversight, a secret society, patrols the borders between the mundane and the magical. To the original membership, now sadly reduced in numbers, Fletcher introduces new allies—and new challenges. At the end of the previous book, Sara Falk, a “Glint” (she can view past events by touching objects associated with them), entered a terrifying mirror-maze in search of missing sentinel Mr. Sharp, and both find themselves battling vampirical Mirror Wights and the treacherous Elizabethan magician Dr. John Dee. Newcomer Caitlin Sean ná Gaolaire, a “venatrix” (a sort of freelance magical hunter), holds a commission to locate and return a stolen child and agrees to work with the Oversight in exchange for help and information—although her relentless stage-Irishness rapidly grows irksome. Meanwhile, the Sluagh, an ancient native race, hemmed in by iron railway lines they cannot cross, seek to nullify their aversion to iron—and sociopathic wizard-scientist Viscount Mountfellon holds the key. The Ghost of the Itch Ward, an insane telepathic woman, intends to kill Mountfellon. But why? Who is, or was, she? And mute telepath and runaway adoptee Amos Templebane, appealingly and genuinely innocent, gets exploited by everybody. This is a thoughtfully dense, fully realized construct where, intriguingly, the characters are defined by their deeds as much as their intrinsic personalities, and where the creepy and sometimes-claustrophobic atmosphere, horrific doings, and unstoppable narrative momentum overwhelm the occasional weaknesses in plot and procedure. Best of all, you never know where it’s going next.
As good as or better than the opener. Grab.Pub Date: Aug. 18, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-316-27954-3
Page Count: 432
Publisher: Orbit/Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: March 6, 2017
A strong, thoughtful, and fast-paced follow-up that bodes well for future volumes.
In the second installment of a political fantasy thriller series where “bioenergetic jade” provides magical energy, the conflict of two warlord/organized crime clans has global implications.
In the Hong Kong-like city of Janloon, the Mountain and No Peak clans have announced a public truce while each secretly tries to undermine the other for control of the city and their nation of Kekon, the only source of the jade. As jade smugglers both inside and outside the country threaten the clans’ mutual control over the mineral, political tensions rise between the neighboring nations of Espenia and Ygutan over a rebellion in Shotar, which leads both to seek more jade for their armies. Meanwhile, Hilo, the former Horn (chief enforcer) of the No Peak clan, struggles to master the tactics he needs to fill his late brother’s role as Pillar (clan leader). His sister, Shae, the clan’s Weather Man (chief advisor), has that tactical knowledge but lacks the clan’s complete trust; she’s also trying to juggle her clan responsibilities and her personal life, which includes a quiet romance with a nonclan professor. At the same time, their adopted brother, Anden, embarks on a new, jade-free life in Espenia but still manages to find trouble there, and Hilo’s jade-immune wife, Wen, secretly supports the clan through her own work as a spy. If they are to prevail against the ruthless Ayt Mada, Pillar of the Mountain clan, and the various other domestic and foreign threats, terrible sacrifices will be required, made willingly or not. The first installment, Jade City (2017), leaned rather heavily, albeit effectively, on some tropes and plot points from The Godfather, and it’s pleasing to see that the author has chosen a more independent path this time around. If there’s any thematic link between this book and Godfather II, it’s a common understanding that the outside world has a way of crashing into isolated communities and forcing them to adapt, so it’s best to be on the offensive, as well as a rueful acknowledgment that despite that understanding, relationships with those outside the community might not end well.
A strong, thoughtful, and fast-paced follow-up that bodes well for future volumes.Pub Date: July 23, 2019
ISBN: 978-0-316-44092-9
Page Count: 608
Publisher: Orbit
Review Posted Online: June 30, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2019
A love letter to imagination, adventure, the written word, and the power of many kinds of love.
An independent young girl finds a blue door in a field and glimpses another world, nudging her onto a path of discovery, destiny, empowerment, and love.
Set at the turn of the 20th century, Harrow's debut novel centers on January Scaller, who grows up under the watchful eye of the wealthy Cornelius Locke, who employs her father, Julian, to travel the globe in search of odd objects and valuable treasures to pad his collection, housed in a sprawling Vermont mansion. January appears to have a charmed childhood but is stifled by the high-society old boy’s club of Mr. Locke and his friends, who treat her as a curiosity—a mixed-race girl with a precocious streak, forced into elaborate outfits and docile behavior for the annual society gatherings. When she's 17, her father seemingly disappears, and January finds a book that will change her life forever. With her motley crew of allies—Samuel, the grocer’s son; Jane, the Kenyan woman sent by Julian to be January’s companion; and Bad, her faithful dog—January embarks on an adventure that will lead her to discover secrets about Mr. Locke, the world and its hidden doorways, and her own family. Harrow employs the image of the door (“Sometimes I feel there are doors lurking in the creases of every sentence, with periods for knobs and verbs for hinges”) as well as the metaphor (a “geometry of absence”) to great effect. Similes and vivid imagery adorn nearly every page like glittering garlands. While some stereotypes are present, such as the depiction of East African women as pantherlike, the book has a diverse cast of characters and a strong woman lead. This portal fantasy doesn’t shy away from racism, classism, and sexism, which helps it succeed as an interesting story.
A love letter to imagination, adventure, the written word, and the power of many kinds of love.Pub Date: Sept. 10, 2019
ISBN: 978-0-316-42199-7
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Redhook/Orbit
Review Posted Online: June 30, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2019
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