Not without its flaws but a solid entry for readers craving new, original space operas.
An alien woman tries to track down her former lover in the first installment of Meierz’s (The Fall, 2015, etc.) new Exiles of the Drift series, set in the same universe as the Tales of Tolari Space.
Farryn, who belongs to an empathic race known as the Tolari, once ruthlessly ruled over the province of Monralar. Before this chapter in the ongoing saga, however, he fled and was exiled from his people for what he considered a just cause that manifested in his killing a “child for political advantage.” Now, as the head of a new crime family, he lives among humans in one of their planetary colonies of Far India. Meanwhile, Farryn’s former “pair-bonded” lover, Sharana, who had tried to put their past behind her, finds herself drawn to discovering what happened to him, leading her to track him down. Not long after her quest begins, however, she is captured by Adeline Russell, a Central Security officer trying to trap Farryn. Adeline has Sharana tortured in order to get information on Farryn, using her as a pawn to go after the actual target. There is a great deal to praise about Meierz’s novel, which, in addition to remarkable prose, centers on richly drawn characters in a beautifully detailed world. The conceit of Earth’s future based around Indian and Hindi culture is a refreshing one, given the American/Eurocentric bent to most sci-fi. Additionally, Farryn makes for a fascinating antihero. Readers might be surprised to find themselves equally drawn to and repelled by his and Sharana’s love story. At the same time, the novel is not particularly welcoming to new readers. They’ll be able to follow the basic gist, but intricacies of the political situation will likely be lost on those who haven’t read the preceding series. Furthermore, after a thrilling opening, Sharana spends the majority of the novel imprisoned and victimized—a disappointing fate for a female character with such potential.
Not without its flaws but a solid entry for readers craving new, original space operas.Pub Date: Sept. 24, 2015
ISBN: 978-1-5168-9212-9
Page Count: 330
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: Oct. 10, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2015
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A first novel, this is also a first person account of Scout's (Jean Louise) recall of the years that led to the ending of a mystery, the breaking of her brother Jem's elbow, the death of her father's enemy — and the close of childhood years. A widower, Atticus raises his children with legal dispassion and paternal intelligence, and is ably abetted by Calpurnia, the colored cook, while the Alabama town of Maycomb, in the 1930's, remains aloof to their divergence from its tribal patterns. Scout and Jem, with their summer-time companion, Dill, find their paths free from interference — but not from dangers; their curiosity about the imprisoned Boo, whose miserable past is incorporated in their play, results in a tentative friendliness; their fears of Atticus' lack of distinction is dissipated when he shoots a mad dog; his defense of a Negro accused of raping a white girl, Mayella Ewell, is followed with avid interest and turns the rabble whites against him. Scout is the means of averting an attack on Atticus but when he loses the case it is Boo who saves Jem and Scout by killing Mayella's father when he attempts to murder them. The shadows of a beginning for black-white understanding, the persistent fight that Scout carries on against school, Jem's emergence into adulthood, Calpurnia's quiet power, and all the incidents touching on the children's "growing outward" have an attractive starchiness that keeps this southern picture pert and provocative. There is much advance interest in this book; it has been selected by the Literary Guild and Reader's Digest; it should win many friends.
Pub Date: July 11, 1960
ISBN: 0060935464
Page Count: 323
Publisher: Lippincott
Review Posted Online: Oct. 7, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 1960
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
Soft-focus story moves right along with few surprises. This time around, Hannah avoids the soap-opera complications of her...
Another middle-aged mom in a muddle.
After years of false starts and big hopes, Elizabeth’s ruggedly handsome husband Jack, a former football star, just landed a spot as a sportscaster on national news. He still loves her, even though much younger women are giving him come-hither looks. Heck, he doesn’t want to betray the love of his life after she helped him kick drugs and stuck by him even when he was a struggling has-been. And won’t it seem hypocritical if he fools around with his sexy assistant while he does in-depth reporting on a rape case involving a famous basketball center? Well, he fools around anyway. Elizabeth, nicknamed Birdie, knows nothing of this, but she withdraws from Jack when her hard-drinking, salt-of-the-earth father has a stroke and dies. Now no one will call her “sugar beet” ever again. Time to return home to Tennessee and contend with Anita, the sort-of-evil stepmother so trashy she wears pink puffy slippers all day long. Naturally, it turns out that Anita actually has a heart of gold and knows a few things about Birdie’s dead mother that were hushed up for years. Mom was an artist, just like Birdie, and an old scandal comes to light as Anita unrolls a vibrant canvas that portrays her secret lover. Perhaps, Birdie muses, her mother died of heartbreak, never having followed her true love or developed her talent. Has she, too, compromised everything she holds dear? Hoping to find out, Birdie joins a support group that promises to reconnect confused women with their passion. She and Jack separate, prompting a how-dare-you fit from their grown daughters. Will Birdie fly her empty nest? Will she go back to college for a degree in art? Will her brooding watercolors ever sell?
Soft-focus story moves right along with few surprises. This time around, Hannah avoids the soap-opera complications of her previous tales (Summer Island, 2001, etc.).Pub Date: July 1, 2002
ISBN: 0-345-45071-X
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2002
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