An exciting and complex tale with memorable characters, standout battle scenes, and riveting worldbuilding.
An aspiring comic-book artist and the ghost of his best friend join a fight against soul-seeking private military contractors in James’ fantasy novel.
Twenty-something freelance artist Clyde Williams dreams of drawing comics but so far has collected nothing but rejections. He shares his Brooklyn apartment with Kevin “Kev” Carpenter, who’s been his best pal for 20 years—and for the last two months, he’s been a ghost. Shot to death in a liquor-store robbery, Kev simply appeared to Clyde as an apparition afterward and stuck around (although he refuses to serve as Clyde’s “ghost writer”). Both friends feel as if they’re at an impasse—so when Agent Rose Hadfield knocks on their door, the pair hear her out. She works for Hourglass, a black-ops government department that trains ghosts, or “Post-Life Entities” like Kev, and their physical anchors, like Clyde, to take on unusual threats. Clyde, whose father and brother both died in combat, despises the military but agrees to accompany Kev to Hourglass for training. The friends learn all kinds of fighting tactics as well as information about Erebus, the land of the dead that’s also called “the Null”: “There are no pearly gates, no kingdoms of clouds, or 72 virgins,” explains an Hourglass trainer. Meanwhile, the wealthy, powerful, and clandestine Cairnwood Society is planning a raid on Erebus from its Brooklyn warehouse in order to harvest souls and monetize them—maybe as energy, maybe as weapons. The strike force needs a guide, so Cairnwood has coerced Konstantin Kozlov, a Russian monk and ghost anchor who’s been to Erebus before, into service. For his part, Konstantin hopes to find the Firmament Needle, which he believes “could stitch together a heavenly Paradise.” A showdown in hell, and in New York City, awaits all the players in this game, with the fate of many souls hanging in the balance.
James, in his first fantasy work, tells a story that’s bursting its seams with imaginative ideas, backstory, combat scenes, and developing relationships. It’s a little slow to get started, but once it does, readers will be drawn deep into this well-developed world—or rather, worlds. These include such arcane elements as Konstantin’s Rising Path sect, the hellish creatures of Erebus, evil capitalists, and the comic-book subculture. Similarly, Clyde and Kev provide emotional ballast among so much that’s unusual and extraordinary; indeed, Clyde serves as an anchor in more ways than one. His relatable struggle over whether he should join the battle connects directly with his family history, and the descriptions of his artwork’s visual impact help prepare readers for the novel’s bravura training and battle scenes. The latter are densely choreographed with verve, intelligence, and plenty of operatic (or maybe comic book–like) action. Even the names of Erebus’ nine territories are evocative, such as The House of Fading Light, The House of Silent Screams, and The House of Cold Stars. With Konstantin’s quest incomplete at the end, readers will likely want a second volume.
An exciting and complex tale with memorable characters, standout battle scenes, and riveting worldbuilding.Pub Date: Sept. 21, 2020
ISBN: 979-8-68-891068-1
Page Count: 378
Publisher: Self
Review Posted Online: Oct. 30, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2021
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
PROFILES
A tragic and grotesque romance that will enchant fans of dark fantasy and horror.
Redheaded Wyatt Westlock returns to her family’s farmhouse following her father’s death; she’s there to burn it to the ground.
But she finds Peter, her childhood friend, chained in her basement. Wyatt releases him, unaware of his secret: He’s immortal and has been ritually sacrificed by generations of members of Wyatt’s family in order to keep hellish monsters from invading our world. His only escape from the cycle of death and rebirth is to kill Wyatt, the last Westlock. Although each of them can only survive if the other dies, their unspoken love for each other keeps them locked in an uneasy truce. Without Peter’s bones, the darkness in the forest creeps closer, bringing with it terrible creatures and eldritch horrors. The couple must explore Wyatt’s own wild magic if they hope to save their doomed romance. Andrew delivers an emotionally intense story of star-crossed lovers whose story unfolds against the backdrop of an isolated farm that’s visited by terrifying birds, menacing hooded figures, and a creature that uses powers of mimicry to hunt. The farm is so vibrantly described that it thoroughly connects the characters to the setting both physically and emotionally, reflecting the bleakness of the choices Peter and Wyatt face. The rot, mold, and mildew that creep over the farm are almost tangible; so too is the longing Peter and Wyatt feel for each other. All characters read white.
A tragic and grotesque romance that will enchant fans of dark fantasy and horror. (Dark fantasy. 14-adult)Pub Date: April 2, 2024
ISBN: 9781338885071
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: Jan. 19, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2024
BOOK REVIEW
A reasonably charming urban fantasy that could have used a more rigorous edit before primetime.
The latest in a series of rereleases from a prolific fantasist’s previously self-published works is a contemporary spin on the fairytale “Godfather Death.”
Viola Marek is an aswang, a shapeshifting vampire from Filipino folklore. She’s also a Chicago real estate agent trying to sell a mansion even while the ghost of its last owner, Thomas Edward Parker IV, is doing his supernatural best to block the sale. In a desperate attempt to earn her commission, she hires Fox D’Mora, Death’s mortal godson, to use his connection to get the ghost to leave. Unfortunately, Death is unavailable: He’s been kidnapped, and to get him back and prevent a worlds-spanning catastrophe, Fox, Vi, the ghost, and assorted other supernatural creatures will have to enter a high-stakes gambling game that usually only immortals can play…but rarely win. The story begins with an unusual blend of myth, fairy tale, and cosmology and inevitably descends to an almost unbearable level of sentimentality, which is simultaneously a refreshing change from Blake’s usual tableau of self-involved, selfish characters who seem driven toward tragedies of their own making. Blake could definitely do a better job at showing the love between characters rather than merely telling the reader that they’re in love. She also has an unfortunate tendency to skip potentially intriguing bits of backstory if they don’t immediately drive the plot along, which is why readers never learn anything about Fox’s childhood and what it was actually like having Death as a parent. Nor does she explain why only two of the four archangels, Gabriel and Raphael, play outsize roles in determining the order of the cosmos, while Uriel and Michael are nowhere to be seen. Bits of anachronism—like the use of a rubber band as aversion therapy 200 years ago or the presence of a magical wristwatch from a time long before watches were common—might be intended to be Pratchett-style humor or chalked up to magic? It’s hard to tell what’s intentional and what is simply careless. Now that Blake has a traditional publisher, perhaps the editors of her future novels will guide the author to address these issues when they arise.
A reasonably charming urban fantasy that could have used a more rigorous edit before primetime.Pub Date: Aug. 8, 2023
ISBN: 9781250892461
Page Count: 416
Publisher: Tor
Review Posted Online: Aug. 19, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2023
© Copyright 2024 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
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