Steeped in period detail and political backbiting in a richly imagined world, but needs a more engaging narrative.
An epic fictional Norse saga set in the ninth century, featuring royalty, repressed love, battles, and the raw appeal of untrammeled nature.
Rich with Viking lore and fact, this compelling family saga involves royalty, territorial battles, and the fraught tensions of the love that dare not speak its name. The tale begins by outlining the relationship between the newly minted king and queen of Herius, who are sailing to an unknown territory. The eye-poppingly named scout Cnut is sent to check out the new land, leaving the king and queen to some rather clunky exposition. Indeed, the entire book tries hard to evoke the great weight of history, which makes for plodding reading: “ ‘Oh Abriel, it is such a curse!’ exclaimed Edwin with a wave of effeminate emotion. ‘To punish me, Padraic whips me mercilessly whenever I show the slightest interest in another man. Yet, I cannot help it. It is who I am! Who would have thought a father could be so cruel to his son?’ ” Not all is well in the kingdom, and tensions simmer among all characters. Oddr, the most poignant and developed character, serves as the book’s emotional backbone. First described as an Angel of Death, Oddr experiences a full and satisfying character arc throughout the story. Ultimately, the book pleasingly wraps up loose ends with an elegant symmetrical narrative. Indeed, structurally and factually, the book is engrossing; however, the prose, especially dialogue, could use an injection of humanity. One warrior describes his cherished weapon: “It was taken from me by Bjorn Kormaksson. There was a time when I could not defeat him. As such, he took my prized sword from me.”
Steeped in period detail and political backbiting in a richly imagined world, but needs a more engaging narrative.Pub Date: Feb. 17, 2015
ISBN: 978-0989929189
Page Count: 380
Publisher: Voyageur Books, LLC
Review Posted Online: May 22, 2015
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
Briskly written soap with down-to-earth types, mostly without the lachrymose contrivances of Hannah’s previous titles...
Sisters in and out of love.
Meghann Dontess is a high-powered matrimonial lawyer in Seattle who prefers sex with strangers to emotional intimacy: a strategy bound to backfire sooner or later, warns her tough-talking shrink. It’s advice Meghann decides to ignore, along with the memories of her difficult childhood, neglectful mother, and younger sister. Though she managed to reunite Claire with Sam Cavenaugh (her father but not Meghann’s) when her mother abandoned both girls long ago, Meghann still feels guilty that her sister’s life doesn’t measure up, at least on her terms. Never married, Claire ekes out a living running a country campground with her dad and is raising her six-year-old daughter on her own. When she falls in love for the first time with an up-and-coming country musician, Meghann is appalled: Bobby Austin is a three-time loser at marriage—how on earth can Claire be so blind? Bobby’s blunt explanation doesn’t exactly satisfy the concerned big sister, who busies herself planning Claire’s dream wedding anyway. And, to relieve the stress, she beds various guys she picks up in bars, including Dr. Joe Wyatt, a neurosurgeon turned homeless drifter after the demise of his beloved wife Diane (whom he euthanized). When Claire’s awful headache turns out to be a kind of brain tumor known among neurologists as a “terminator,” Joe rallies. Turns out that Claire had befriended his wife on her deathbed, and now in turn he must try to save her. Is it too late? Will Meghann find true love at last?
Briskly written soap with down-to-earth types, mostly without the lachrymose contrivances of Hannah’s previous titles (Distant Shores, 2002, etc.). Kudos for skipping the snifflefest this time around.Pub Date: May 1, 2003
ISBN: 0-345-45073-6
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2003
Coelho's placebo has racked up impressive sales in Brazil and Europe. Americans should flock to it like gulls.
Coelho is a Brazilian writer with four books to his credit. Following Diary of a Magus (1992—not reviewed) came this book, published in Brazil in 1988: it's an interdenominational, transcendental, inspirational fable—in other words, a bag of wind.
The story is about a youth empowered to follow his dream. Santiago is an Andalusian shepherd boy who learns through a dream of a treasure in the Egyptian pyramids. An old man, the king of Salem, the first of various spiritual guides, tells the boy that he has discovered his destiny: "to realize one's destiny is a person's only real obligation." So Santiago sells his sheep, sails to Tangier, is tricked out of his money, regains it through hard work, crosses the desert with a caravan, stops at an oasis long enough to fall in love, escapes from warring tribesmen by performing a miracle, reaches the pyramids, and eventually gets both the gold and the girl. Along the way he meets an Englishman who describes the Soul of the World; the desert woman Fatima, who teaches him the Language of the World; and an alchemist who says, "Listen to your heart" A message clings like ivy to every encounter; everyone, but everyone, has to put in their two cents' worth, from the crystal merchant to the camel driver ("concentrate always on the present, you'll be a happy man"). The absence of characterization and overall blandness suggest authorship by a committee of self-improvement pundits—a far cry from Saint- Exupery's The Little Prince: that flagship of the genre was a genuine charmer because it clearly derived from a quirky, individual sensibility.
Coelho's placebo has racked up impressive sales in Brazil and Europe. Americans should flock to it like gulls.Pub Date: July 1, 1993
ISBN: 0-06-250217-4
Page Count: 192
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 1993
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
BOOK TO SCREEN
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