A solid, if somewhat slow, follow-up novel about a Greek warrior and spy.
A soldier fights for home and family in this second installment of an epic series.
In Kachel’s (Spoils of Olympus: By the Sword, 2014) sequel, Greek combatant and spy Andrikos and his mentor, Vettias, continue their quest to defend the heirs of Alexander the Great amid a dangerous civil war. After the death of Gen. Eumenes, the two spies must ingratiate themselves with their new leader and former enemy, Antigonus. Andrikos continues to hone his skills as he and Vettias conduct assassinations, plant rumors, and generally attempt to undermine their enemies. While Andrikos navigates a web of political intrigue, he also develops a personal life. He reunites with a woman named Mara only to find out she has given birth to their child, a son called Talos. The couple enjoy a series of clandestine meetings, reinforcing their love for each other, before Andrikos makes his move and wins his family back. But a family can be a complicating factor for a spy whose life is often at risk. When Antigonus instructs Andrikos to bring the remaining heirs of Alexander to their side, Andrikos faces a treacherous mission where he must make choices that could endanger his life and the well-being of his newfound family. Kachel presents another well-researched novel that explores a fascinating but overlooked period of Greek history. His descriptions of military life, especially the intrigue and the battles, are spot-on. He includes a huge cast of characters, many of whom are pulled straight from the pages of history. But the sheer volume of names and alliances can be difficult to keep straight. A bigger problem is the slow pacing of the narrative. Warring generals continue to vie for power with little lasting success and few tangible plot developments. Thankfully, the narrative gains steam toward the end, when Andrikos returns to his hometown and then embarks on his mission to rescue the heirs of Alexander. Kachel continues to skillfully develop Andrikos’ character. Some of Kachel’s best scenes depict his hero’s relatable struggle to balance his personal and professional lives as the young man grows into his roles of spy, husband, and father.
A solid, if somewhat slow, follow-up novel about a Greek warrior and spy.Pub Date: Aug. 18, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-5368-2566-4
Page Count: 334
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: Jan. 27, 2017
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
Too beholden to sentimentality and cliché, this novel fails to establish a uniquely realized perspective.
Hunter’s debut novel tracks the experiences of her family members during the Holocaust.
Sol and Nechuma Kurc, wealthy, cultured Jews in Radom, Poland, are successful shop owners; they and their grown children live a comfortable lifestyle. But that lifestyle is no protection against the onslaught of the Holocaust, which eventually scatters the members of the Kurc family among several continents. Genek, the oldest son, is exiled with his wife to a Siberian gulag. Halina, youngest of all the children, works to protect her family alongside her resistance-fighter husband. Addy, middle child, a composer and engineer before the war breaks out, leaves Europe on one of the last passenger ships, ending up thousands of miles away. Then, too, there are Mila and Felicia, Jakob and Bella, each with their own share of struggles—pain endured, horrors witnessed. Hunter conducted extensive research after learning that her grandfather (Addy in the book) survived the Holocaust. The research shows: her novel is thorough and precise in its details. It’s less precise in its language, however, which frequently relies on cliché. “You’ll get only one shot at this,” Halina thinks, enacting a plan to save her husband. “Don’t botch it.” Later, Genek, confronting a routine bit of paperwork, must decide whether or not to hide his Jewishness. “That form is a deal breaker,” he tells himself. “It’s life and death.” And: “They are low, it seems, on good fortune. And something tells him they’ll need it.” Worse than these stale phrases, though, are the moments when Hunter’s writing is entirely inadequate for the subject matter at hand. Genek, describing the gulag, calls the nearest town “a total shitscape.” This is a low point for Hunter’s writing; elsewhere in the novel, it’s stronger. Still, the characters remain flat and unknowable, while the novel itself is predictable. At this point, more than half a century’s worth of fiction and film has been inspired by the Holocaust—a weighty and imposing tradition. Hunter, it seems, hasn’t been able to break free from her dependence on it.
Too beholden to sentimentality and cliché, this novel fails to establish a uniquely realized perspective.Pub Date: Feb. 14, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-399-56308-9
Page Count: 416
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: Nov. 21, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2016
BOOK TO SCREEN
The writing is merely serviceable, and one can’t help but wish the author had found a way to present her material as...
An unlikely love story set amid the horrors of a Nazi death camp.
Based on real people and events, this debut novel follows Lale Sokolov, a young Slovakian Jew sent to Auschwitz in 1942. There, he assumes the heinous task of tattooing incoming Jewish prisoners with the dehumanizing numbers their SS captors use to identify them. When the Tätowierer, as he is called, meets fellow prisoner Gita Furman, 17, he is immediately smitten. Eventually, the attraction becomes mutual. Lale proves himself an operator, at once cagey and courageous: As the Tätowierer, he is granted special privileges and manages to smuggle food to starving prisoners. Through female prisoners who catalog the belongings confiscated from fellow inmates, Lale gains access to jewels, which he trades to a pair of local villagers for chocolate, medicine, and other items. Meanwhile, despite overwhelming odds, Lale and Gita are able to meet privately from time to time and become lovers. In 1944, just ahead of the arrival of Russian troops, Lale and Gita separately leave the concentration camp and experience harrowingly close calls. Suffice it to say they both survive. To her credit, the author doesn’t flinch from describing the depravity of the SS in Auschwitz and the unimaginable suffering of their victims—no gauzy evasions here, as in Boy in the Striped Pajamas. She also manages to raise, if not really explore, some trickier issues—the guilt of those Jews, like the tattooist, who survived by doing the Nazis’ bidding, in a sense betraying their fellow Jews; and the complicity of those non-Jews, like the Slovaks in Lale’s hometown, who failed to come to the aid of their beleaguered countrymen.
The writing is merely serviceable, and one can’t help but wish the author had found a way to present her material as nonfiction. Still, this is a powerful, gut-wrenching tale that is hard to shake off.Pub Date: Sept. 4, 2018
ISBN: 978-0-06-279715-5
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: July 16, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2018
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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