A genre-blending adventure that, despite some lulls, pulls the reader through the pages.
Debut author Morris’ SF/fantasy novel follows an apprentice angel on a mission from God.
When Mara Angelica is called into God’s office, she is nervous. Mara is training to be an angel, and to complete a requirement called the Angelic Cycle, she must hunt and destroy a demon. Not just any demon, either: Mara is tasked with eliminating a particularly powerful foe named Arual. To complete the mission, she needs a team: Enter Qwag, a sassy warrior dwarf known for his blunt manners and fondness for chain mail. He accompanies Mara to Tijuana, Mexico, where they connect with Stacey, a shape-shifter who can take either a human form or that of a 60-pound bobcat. Mara insists that they also collect her old friend Tessa Delray, a seer and “concocter of powerful medicines.” Tessa has a gun-toting nephew named James who comes onboard along with Tessa’s cat, Larry. Finally, they are joined by Twilt Gensuri, who has long, thick green hair and hails from the small planet of Gnez. Braced for mayhem, the ragtag group races through the desert in a recently purchased Mercedes van; demons are out in the world, and they tend to be keen for a fight: “Qwag was up out of his tent and coming fast, blood dripping from a ragged wound low on his neck….The grisly chimera, all deep-set black eyes and wobbly mouth, was getting its short, stubby leg under it. It lifted one huge claw high into the air and lumbered forwards.” Throughout it all, Mara must always remember what she was taught: “to properly hunt a demon, one always looked for the advantage, no matter how slight.”
This multifaceted tale forces the reader to expect the unexpected, as the narrative consistently adds more twists. Despite the large ensemble cast and busy plot, the story proves easy to follow—regardless of the realm the characters traverse, there are demons about to provide violent conflict and be destroyed. The diverse team assembled for Mara allows for some welcome nuance, as not everyone involved is even attuned to the same God Mara serves; dwarves like Qwag, for instance, have their own deities (“[Mara] worked for Heaven, and she would serve her God well. But not everyone wanted to serve Him. That didn't make them evil”). A certain excessive chattiness does, however, dim the excitement over the course of the story. Characters tend to talk a lot, whether making bland proclamations (“Sometimes I feel like I am pressuring you just by being here”) or asking something inane (“Any suggestions?”). Such quotidian wordiness detracts from the overall wild, inhuman natures of the main players. Other scenes are slowed by dull details, such as how cooked bacon is divvied up among the group, or excitement over the prospect of hot baths, which sends one character “dancing around in a circle.” Still, the storytelling is undeniably creative. This lively mixture of science fiction, fantasy, and romance (angels, it turns out, are not above erotic pleasure) keeps the reader guessing without losing them in the shuffle. A genre-blending adventure that, despite some lulls, pulls the reader through the pages.Pub Date: N/A
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: 297
Publisher: Manuscript
Review Posted Online: April 8, 2023
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A charming and persuasive entry that will leave readers impatiently awaiting the concluding volume.
Book 2 of Hearne's latest fantasy trilogy, The Seven Kennings (A Plague of Giants, 2017), set in a multiracial world thrust into turmoil by an invasion of peculiar giants.
In this world, most races have their own particular magical endowment, or “kenning,” though there are downsides to trying to gain the magic (an excellent chance of being killed instead) and using it (rapid aging and death). Most recently discovered is the sixth kenning, whose beneficiaries can talk to and command animals. The story canters along, although with multiple first-person narrators, it's confusing at times. Some characters are familiar, others are new, most of them with their own problems to solve, all somehow caught up in the grand design. To escape her overbearing father and the unreasoning violence his kind represents, fire-giant Olet Kanek leads her followers into the far north, hoping to found a new city where the races and kennings can peacefully coexist. Joining Olet are young Abhinava Khose, discoverer of the sixth kenning, and, later, Koesha Gansu (kenning: air), captain of an all-female crew shipwrecked by deep-sea monsters. Elsewhere, Hanima, who commands hive insects, struggles to free her city from the iron grip of wealthy, callous merchant monarchists. Other threads focus on the Bone Giants, relentless invaders seeking the still-unknown seventh kenning, whose confidence that this can defeat the other six is deeply disturbing. Under Hearne's light touch, these elements mesh perfectly, presenting an inventive, eye-filling panorama; satisfying (and, where appropriate, well-resolved) plotlines; and tensions between the races and their kennings to supply much of the drama.
A charming and persuasive entry that will leave readers impatiently awaiting the concluding volume.Pub Date: Feb. 4, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-345-54857-3
Page Count: 592
Publisher: Del Rey/Ballantine
Review Posted Online: Nov. 24, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2019
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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
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