In DeLue’s debut, teenagers Brian Nine and Will Star are onboard a spaceship when a bolt of lightning causes an accidental launch and the subsequent discovery of a new, inhabited planet.
Brian Nine and Will Star are the David and Goliath of this narrative—with one caveat: Brian, the diminutive child genius, and Will, the star football running back, are best friends. The story takes off, literally, when lightning strikes the Jupiter Manned Explorer, launching the duo through space, light-years away from home, and straight for a sun. Brian and Will narrowly veer away from solar immolation and subsequently find themselves hovering above a seemingly inhabited planet. DeLue creatively plays off his leads’ brains-and-brawn dichotomy, often resulting in comedic sequences. His full world-building repertoire—including a fluid writing style, dialogue delivery and memorable characterizations—is on full display in his portrayal of life on Carpella, a planet ruled by the ruthless, big-brother like Chimera. The theme of the novel takes a distinct shift from space travel to the injustices exacted unto the Hillonan, a pre-industrial human species that were subjected to a life of slavery by the Chimera. Brian’s fearful nature constantly clashes with the absolute ferocity and fearlessness of Will. This conflict is never more evident than when Brian and Will stumble upon RiAnna and her brothers, the valiant Rocco and master swordsman Fortis. The boys are hailed as saviors, their arrival seen as part of a prophecy that will lead to Hillonan freedom, but Brian wishes avoid the danger and return to the safety of the ship while Will feels that they have a responsibility to the Hillonan—and the beautiful RiAnna. On the cusp of revolution, the Hillonan, as well as Brian and Will, are put to the ultimate test as themes of trust, glory, heroism and sacrifice consume the narrative. DeLue proves to be a wizard of his craft as he builds Carpella into a world imbued with natural human emotion, savory plotlines, memorable characters, history-changing situations, a fight for freedom and everlasting glory in this epic page-turner.
Pub Date: Dec. 12, 2011
ISBN: 978-1468047837
Page Count: 448
Publisher: Oholla
Review Posted Online: Feb. 9, 2012
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
With an aura of both enchantment and authenticity, Bardugo’s compulsively readable novel leaves a portal ajar for equally...
Yale’s secret societies hide a supernatural secret in this fantasy/murder mystery/school story.
Most Yale students get admitted through some combination of impressive academics, athletics, extracurriculars, family connections, and donations, or perhaps bribing the right coach. Not Galaxy “Alex” Stern. The protagonist of Bardugo’s (King of Scars, 2019, etc.) first novel for adults, a high school dropout and low-level drug dealer, Alex got in because she can see dead people. A Yale dean who's a member of Lethe, one of the college’s famously mysterious secret societies, offers Alex a free ride if she will use her spook-spotting abilities to help Lethe with its mission: overseeing the other secret societies’ occult rituals. In Bardugo’s universe, the “Ancient Eight” secret societies (Lethe is the eponymous Ninth House) are not just old boys’ breeding grounds for the CIA, CEOs, Supreme Court justices, and so on, as they are in ours; they’re wielders of actual magic. Skull and Bones performs prognostications by borrowing patients from the local hospital, cutting them open, and examining their entrails. St. Elmo’s specializes in weather magic, useful for commodities traders; Aurelian, in unbreakable contracts; Manuscript goes in for glamours, or “illusions and lies,” helpful to politicians and movie stars alike. And all these rituals attract ghosts. It’s Alex’s job to keep the supernatural forces from embarrassing the magical elite by releasing chaos into the community (all while trying desperately to keep her grades up). “Dealing with ghosts was like riding the subway: Do not make eye contact. Do not smile. Do not engage. Otherwise, you never know what might follow you home.” A townie’s murder sets in motion a taut plot full of drug deals, drunken assaults, corruption, and cover-ups. Loyalties stretch and snap. Under it all runs the deep, dark river of ambition and anxiety that at once powers and undermines the Yale experience. Alex may have more reason than most to feel like an imposter, but anyone who’s spent time around the golden children of the Ivy League will likely recognize her self-doubt.
With an aura of both enchantment and authenticity, Bardugo’s compulsively readable novel leaves a portal ajar for equally dazzling sequels.Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-250-31307-2
Page Count: 448
Publisher: Flatiron Books
Review Posted Online: June 30, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2019
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
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