An often exciting adventure about a quest for a legendary object and a group of young people who come to realize their great...
The second book in Bowen’s (The Smiling Stallion Inn, 2013) Legends of Arria high-fantasy series.
This latest installment picks up where the previous one left off. Adoptive brothers Basha and Oaka, accompanied by their teacher and protector Sir Nickleby, are on a quest to retrieve Tau’s Cup so that Basha may fulfill his promise to marry a young woman named Jawen. But trouble lurks in the wilderness, as Doomba and his followers seek to stop the teenage brothers. When wolves attack, Sir Nickleby sacrifices himself to save the boys. Fato, a talking messenger falcon, then joins the pair on their journey and, later, two young women—Monika, whom the boys know from their home town of Coe Baba, and Gnat, an escaped servant girl—become part of the group. Together, they learn that they share a connection to the legendary Knights of Arria as they struggle to fight off enemies and continue their quest. Meanwhile, back in Coe Baba, the villagers (and especially the boys’ parents) worry about the young men. When soldiers pursuing Basha and Oaka invade Coe Baba, things come to a head. Action, danger and a large cast of characters keep this story moving swiftly along. However, the main players tend toward introspection and indecision, which can occasionally bog things down, as does occasionally clunky phrasing (“The action long since over, and the smell having alerted them to what to expect so that they might steel themselves, meant that they weren’t quite as shocked as they might have been, if they had come to a fight like this unawares as participants”). The first book in the series will give readers a clearer understanding of the events in this installment, but this sequel can be read as a stand-alone—even if the tale of Basha and Oaka is far from over at its conclusion.
An often exciting adventure about a quest for a legendary object and a group of young people who come to realize their great power and responsibility.Pub Date: March 16, 2014
ISBN: 978-1495369148
Page Count: 408
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: April 29, 2014
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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
At Buckkeep in the Six Duchies, young Fitz, the bastard son of Prince Chivalry, is raised as a stablehand by old warrior Burrich. But when Chivalry dies without legitimate issue—murdered, it's rumored—Fitz, at the orders of King Shrewd, is brought into the palace and trained in the knightly and courtly arts. Meanwhile, secretly at night, he receives instruction from another bastard, Chade, in the assassin's craft. Now, King Shrewd's subjects are imperiled by the visits of the Red-Ship Raiders—formidable warriors who pillage the seacoasts and turn their human victims into vicious, destructive zombies. Since rehabilitating the zombies proves impossible, it's Fitz's task to go abroad covertly and kill them as quickly and humanely as possible. Shrewd orders that Fitz be taught the Skill—mental powers of telepathy and coercion possessed by all those of the royal line; his teacher is Galen, a sadistic ally of the popinjay Prince Regal, who hates Fitz all the more for his loyalty to Shrewd's other son, the stalwart soldier Verity. Galen brutalizes Fitz and, unknown to anyone, implants a mental block that prevents Fitz from using the Skill. Later, Shrewd decrees that, to cement an alliance, Verity shall wed the Princess Kettricken, heir to a remote yet rich mountain kingdom. Verity, occupied with Skillfully keeping the Red-Ship Raiders at bay, can't go to collect his bride, so Regal and Fitz are sent. Finally, Fitz must discover the depths of Regal's perfidy, recapture his true Skill, win Kettricken's heart for Verity, and help Verity defeat the Raiders. An intriguing, controlled, and remarkably assured debut, at once satisfyingly self-contained yet leaving plenty of scope for future extensions and embellishments.
Pub Date: April 17, 1995
ISBN: 0-553-37445-1
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Spectra/Bantam
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 1995
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