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THE ZENITH LORD

Name: THE ZENITH LORD
Author: Dameon Cox
ISBN: 978-0996006323

by Dameon Cox ‧ RELEASE DATE: Aug. 11, 2014

Epic fantasy that struggles to grab the reader.

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Cox (Zenith’s Spy, 2014) returns to the world of noble Zenith Lord and the evil Dark’s Source in this epic fantasy that begins with a murder.

Jarod Greatstone, the Zenith Lord, has a good life: not only is he lord of the Seven Realms, he’s also surrounded by friends and happily married, with his first child on the way. But when his wife, Zenith Lady Maress, is poisoned and dies—though their child is safely born—Jarod comes to realize that both ordinary human enemies and the dark spirits scheme against him. Jarod and his friends—the guardsman, the spymaster, etc.—track down the source of this evil, which readers already know from the first chapter: High Lord Mountglen opposes Jarod, motivated both by his greed and by the dark spirit–master Shadure. Meanwhile, Shadure and the other evil spirits of Dark’s Source have their own reasons for destroying the Greatstone family—especially since the newborn Greatstone may play an important part in the epic battle. This epic battle of good vs. evil is the major connective tissue between this sequel and Zenith’s Spy: characters are largely new, so first-time readers will find this volume accessible without having read the first. Unfortunately, while this stark good-vs.-evil fantasy can be thrilling, the evil never quite seems threatening, robbing the story of much of its suspense or interest. While we see the good characters collect their forces and figure out who the culprits are, the few evil characters don’t do much at all. The mystery of the Zenith Lady’s poisoning leads to some compelling scenes—e.g., the guardsman testing her food—but since this isn’t a mystery to readers (and not a mystery long for Jarod, who’s told all about Mountglen’s sinister history), the storyline doesn’t engage much interest. The writing is generally pleasant, though readers may balk at the occasionally awkward line: “Enmity bathed both the tones of Shadure’s words in Mountglen’s mind and the sound that eerily floated to his ears.”

Epic fantasy that struggles to grab the reader.

Pub Date: Aug. 11, 2014

ISBN: 978-0996006323

Page Count: 402

Publisher: Lezen Publishing, LLC

Review Posted Online: May 11, 2015

Review Program: Kirkus Indie

Categories:

GENERAL FICTION

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SUMMER ISLAND

by Kristin Hannah ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 1, 2001

The best-selling author of tearjerkers like Angel Falls (2000) serves up yet another mountain of mush, topped off with...

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Talk-show queen takes tumble as millions jeer.

Nora Bridges is a wildly popular radio spokesperson for family-first virtues, but her loyal listeners don't know that she walked out on her husband and teenaged daughters years ago and didn't look back. Now that a former lover has sold racy pix of naked Nora and horny himself to a national tabloid, her estranged daughter Ruby, an unsuccessful stand-up comic in Los Angeles, has been approached to pen a tell-all. Greedy for the fat fee she's been promised, Ruby agrees and heads for the San Juan Islands, eager to get reacquainted with the mom she plans to betray. Once in the family homestead, nasty Ruby alternately sulks and glares at her mother, who is temporarily wheelchair-bound as a result of a post-scandal car crash. Uncaring, Ruby begins writing her side of the story when she's not strolling on the beach with former sweetheart Dean Sloan, the son of wealthy socialites who basically ignored him and his gay brother Eric. Eric, now dying of cancer and also in a wheelchair, has returned to the island. This dismal threesome catch up on old times, recalling their childhood idylls on the island. After Ruby's perfect big sister Caroline shows up, there's another round of heartfelt talk. Nora gradually reveals the truth about her unloving husband and her late father's alcoholism, which led her to seek the approval of others at the cost of her own peace of mind. And so on. Ruby is aghast to discover that she doesn't know everything after all, but Dean offers her subdued comfort. Happy endings await almost everyone—except for readers of this nobly preachy snifflefest.

The best-selling author of tearjerkers like Angel Falls (2000) serves up yet another mountain of mush, topped off with syrupy platitudes about life and love.

Pub Date: March 1, 2001

ISBN: 0-609-60737-5

Page Count: 336

Publisher: Crown

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2001

Categories:

GENERAL FICTION

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LAST ORDERS

by Graham Swift ‧ RELEASE DATE: April 5, 1996

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Britisher Swift's sixth novel (Ever After, 1992 etc.) and fourth to appear here is a slow-to-start but then captivating tale of English working-class families in the four decades following WW II. When Jack Dodds dies suddenly of cancer after years of running a butcher shop in London, he leaves a strange request—namely, that his ashes be scattered off Margate pier into the sea. And who could better be suited to fulfill this wish than his three oldest drinking buddies—insurance man Ray, vegetable seller Lenny, and undertaker Vic, all of whom, like Jack himself, fought also as soldiers or sailors in the long-ago world war. Swift's narrative start, with its potential for the melodramatic, is developed instead with an economy, heart, and eye that release (through the characters' own voices, one after another) the story's humanity and depth instead of its schmaltz. The jokes may be weak and self- conscious when the three old friends meet at their local pub in the company of the urn holding Jack's ashes; but once the group gets on the road, in an expensive car driven by Jack's adoptive son, Vince, the story starts gradually to move forward, cohere, and deepen. The reader learns in time why it is that no wife comes along, why three marriages out of three broke apart, and why Vince always hated his stepfather Jack and still does—or so he thinks. There will be stories of innocent youth, suffering wives, early loves, lost daughters, secret affairs, and old antagonisms—including a fistfight over the dead on an English hilltop, and a strewing of Jack's ashes into roiling seawaves that will draw up feelings perhaps unexpectedly strong. Without affectation, Swift listens closely to the lives that are his subject and creates a songbook of voices part lyric, part epic, part working-class social realism—with, in all, the ring to it of the honest, human, and true.