Vivid, impressively detailed work, but readers who find the lack of originality a huge turn-off may not hang around for the...
Evil empire vs. saintly assassins, in British author Buchanan's fantasy debut.
Thanks to its superior weaponry, the Holy Empire of Mann has conquered most of the world in its blind desire to spread its appalling, sadomasochistic religion. Among the few holdouts are the Mercian Free Ports, the besieged city of Bar-Khos and the Roshun assassin cult which offers personal protection through the threat of vendetta. Dying assassin Ash takes an apprentice, Nico, a street urchin from the war-torn streets of Bar-Khos. But then Kirkus, the heir to the throne of the Empire, kills a girl under the protection of the Roshun as part of his religion's ghastly rituals. To fulfill this vendetta, Roshun must penetrate to the very heart of the Empire. Predictably, therefore, the first three to be chosen fail the task. So ailing old Ash, his rival assassin Baracha and their respective apprentices Nico and Aléas are selected. Meanwhile Sasheen, the Holy Matriarch, knows that Roshun will come to kill Kirkus, so she prepares a counterstrike against the Roshun monastery itself. This entirely conventional backdrop—evil empire, enigmatic sage, starveling apprentice and so forth—comes across as humdrum or, worse, derivative. Still, the writing is mature, the action sequences gripping and suitably bloodthirsty, and there's a plot twist or two. But the doubt remains: Does Buchanan have a real imagination, or is he merely a skilled embroiderer?
Vivid, impressively detailed work, but readers who find the lack of originality a huge turn-off may not hang around for the rest of the series.Pub Date: Jan. 1, 2011
ISBN: 978-0-7653-3105-2
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Tor
Review Posted Online: Oct. 22, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2010
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
A somewhat fragmentary nocturnal shadows Jim Nightshade and his friend Will Halloway, born just before and just after midnight on the 31st of October, as they walk the thin line between real and imaginary worlds. A carnival (evil) comes to town with its calliope, merry-go-round and mirror maze, and in its distortion, the funeral march is played backwards, their teacher's nephew seems to assume the identity of the carnival's Mr. Cooger. The Illustrated Man (an earlier Bradbury title) doubles as Mr. Dark. comes for the boys and Jim almost does; and there are other spectres in this freakshow of the mind, The Witch, The Dwarf, etc., before faith casts out all these fears which the carnival has exploited... The allusions (the October country, the autumn people, etc.) as well as the concerns of previous books will be familiar to Bradbury's readers as once again this conjurer limns a haunted landscape in an allegory of good and evil. Definitely for all admirers.
Pub Date: June 15, 1962
ISBN: 0380977273
Page Count: 312
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: March 20, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 1962
© Copyright 2025 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
