Another trademark romp in the otherworld, and a lot of fun.
Marcus Wester and company return to work their magic and mischief among the Firstbloods, Kurtadam and Southlings.
Whether you’re a fantasy buff or not, you have to admire ace storyteller Abraham’s skill at building plausible alternate worlds, a trade much practiced, but not often so well, ever since the days of Tolkien and the Shire. Picking up where The Dragon’s Path (2011) left off, Abraham reintroduces us to his mixed-bag company of heroes and villains, inserting some timely touches in his aoristic universe—for one thing, fiscal troubles that the assembled kings of his European-ish landscape seem disinclined to solve together, and for another, a struggle between the forces of reason and an entrenched priesthood, “Palliako and his Keshet cultists,” as one of the good guys puts it. Or are they good guys? One of the many strengths of Abraham’s storytelling is that he allows a little moral ambiguity to curl around the toes of his characters; the heroes aren’t 100 percent virtuous, while the bad guys sometimes have a few redeeming qualities. Good thing, too, for it’s a mixed-up, violent world in which Cithrin bel Sarcour, “voice of the Medean bank in Porte Oliva,” now finds herself, and a smelly and unsanitary one at that; she’s inclined to appreciate differences of cultural tendency as long as the bottom line isn’t harmed, whereas others are more keenly aware that she is a “half-Cinnae girl in a well-tailored dress,” less so that Cithrin has perforce been playing hanky-panky with the books. Did we say that the bad guys had their good sides? True enough, but there is evil aplenty for Wester and his merry band to battle, even if others are inclined to let such things sort themselves out; as one says, “Bring swords to the border, and a few men’s follies become a tragedy for thousands.” Indeed, and you never can tell what sorts of follies the Haaverkin and the Tralgu and such are going to cook up.
Another trademark romp in the otherworld, and a lot of fun.Pub Date: May 22, 2012
ISBN: 978-0-316-08077-4
Page Count: 528
Publisher: Orbit/Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: March 31, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2012
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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